


Love Devotion Surrender

by Rainne



Series: Sweetest, Mightiest [1]
Category: Captain America (Movies), The Avengers (Marvel Movies), Thor (Movies)
Genre: Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Dom/sub Undertones, F/F, F/M, Mentions of Past Attempted Rape, Mentions of past abuse, Multi, OT3, these three ugh what can i even say
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-05-14
Updated: 2014-05-20
Packaged: 2018-01-24 19:56:57
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 26,298
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1615172
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rainne/pseuds/Rainne
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Unfortunately, in the West surrender is misunderstood. </p><p>We feel that if we surrender to someone, he will then lord it over us....</p><p>But from the spiritual point of view...when the finite enters in the Infinite, it becomes the Infinite all at once. </p><p>When a tiny drop enters into the ocean, we cannot trace the drop. It becomes the mighty ocean.  </p><p>~ Guru Sri Chinmoy</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [citymusings](https://archiveofourown.org/users/citymusings/gifts).



> Please note that this story contains A/B/O dynamics, dom/sub undertones, one instance of homophobic language, one instance of verbal abuse by a parent of an adult child, and discussions of past child abuse and a past attempted rape. If any of these issues (and their concomitant issues of consent, etc.) are triggering to you, please be aware of these issues before continuing. I want everyone to be able to enjoy my stories, and so I've tried to think of everything that might be upsetting and warn for it before you continue. If you run across something I haven't warned for that you think I should warn for, please let me know.
> 
> All that said, this is NOT a darkfic! So if you decide to read it, I hope you enjoy it. 
> 
> Also, this is the fic that spawned, like, a million headcanons. So if any of the worldbuilding aspects are confusing, please ask me about them in the comments and I will be happy to bore you to tears talking about how everything in this universe works. :D
> 
> ~R

The flight from London landed at LaGuardia sometime before it had even taken off. Jane and Darcy staggered off the plane, both feeling the effects of jetlag something fierce. Since they'd had the foresight to ship all of their things to New York via UPS, their trip through Customs was mercifully simple. They were also able to bypass the baggage claim and head straight for the airport's main entrance, keeping their eyes peeled. Thor couldn't meet them personally, but he had promised to send someone he trusted to pick them up and bring them to Avengers Tower.

Darcy spotted him first; he was standing under the Delta Airlines sign, holding a piece of cardboard that read “FOSTER - LEWIS” in huge red letters and looking as if he felt like an idiot. She might not have recognized him at all had he not shifted just the right way; the fabric of his left sleeve parted briefly from the leather of his glove and she gasped. “Oh my gods, Jane,” she whispered. “He sent the freaking  _Winter Soldier_ to pick us up at the airport!”

Jane's head whipped around and she whimpered softly in the back of her throat. “Oh, wow.”

“I know, right? He's so _pretty._ Who'd have guessed?” Darcy grinned, then tugged on Jane's sleeve. “Come on,” she said. “I want to sleep forever.” She dragged Jane in the direction of the dark-haired man, waving at him as they got close. “Hi!” she said. “Jane Foster and Darcy Lewis, that's us!”

“Hey,” he replied, his lips curling in a slight smile. “Glad you made it okay. Flight all right?”

“Forever long, and turbulence most of the way, so I couldn't sleep and Her Majesty's Stomach couldn't keep anything down,” Darcy replied. “I'm Darcy, by the way.”

“Bucky,” the Winter Soldier responded. “Bucky Barnes. You gals need to grab any luggage?”

“We shipped everything ahead to avoid Customs,” Jane said. “It should already be here.”

“Might be; you'd have to ask JARVIS when we get to the tower,” Bucky replied. He balled up his sign and dumped it into a trash can on the way out the door. “C'mon; Stark sent a Town Car, so we're cruising in style.”

From what she knew of the man - which, admittedly, was very damn little - Darcy would have expected Bucky Barnes to be the strong, silent type; she would have also expected him to be an Alpha. He was neither. He was, in fact, a Beta, imprinted to someone who smelled like coffee beans. And far from being silent, Bucky was an absolute chatterbox, especially once he found out that neither of the women had been to New York before. He took great delight in pointing out the sights, and especially in telling them what  _used_ to be in certain places. There was an almost fiendish joy behind every use of the words  _back in my day_ that Darcy found deeply endearing. But then, she'd always had a thing for people with trollish tendencies.

The Town Car dropped them right in front of the tower, and Bucky escorted them in with old-fashioned style, opening the doors for them and letting his hand hover near the small of Darcy's back without actually touching her. It was kind of sweet, coming from a Beta, though if he'd been an Alpha she'd have suspected his motivations immediately.

He showed them into the private elevator in the hidden alcove at the back of the building's lobby - accessible only with a retinal scan, so until they were input into the Tower's security systems, they couldn't leave without an escort - and brought them up to the Avengers' floors, which were at the top of the building. When the elevator opened, it was onto a glass wall that gave them a gorgeous view of the city, and Darcy plastered herself to the window, staring in awe. Jane, on the other hand, fairly flung herself at her bonded Alpha, who had apparently just arrived via hammer on the landing pad outside, cape swirling and hair blowing in the breeze.

Bucky gave Darcy a minute to take in the view, then nudged her with his elbow. “Come on; I'll show you where you're staying.” Leaving the bonded pair to reacquaint themselves, Bucky led Darcy down the hall. They passed apartment door after apartment door, marked with name plaques rather than numbers:  _Romanoff_ ,  _Barton_ ,  _Banner_ ,  _Rogers and Barnes_ ,  _Thor and Foster_ . Next to  _Thor and Foster_ , nearly at the end of the hall, was another door marked simply  _Lewis_ . She blinked at it. “Really?”

Bucky nodded. “Stark's a Beta, but even he knows it'd be cruel and unusual punishment to make you bunk in with a bonded pair like that.” He reached out and turned the doorknob, pushing it open. “Go on, have a look.”

Darcy entered the apartment, unsure what to expect; the lights came up as she entered, and she gasped, looking around. “Wow.” The small entryway let into an open-plan living/dining area furnished in a very modern style with mostly neutral colors that could be easily enhanced by the addition of throws, pillows, and knickknacks. The walls were bare, clearly inviting Darcy to hang her own pictures and posters. The kitchen, off to the left, was small but gleamed with stainless steel; to the right, a doorway led into a bedroom; Darcy could just see the side of what promised to be a very large bed. All of the boxes Darcy had shipped - the entirety of her worldly possessions - were stacked against a wall in the bedroom. She smiled.

“Nice,” Bucky said, following her in. “Not my style, but nice.”

“I don't think it's really anybody's style yet,” Darcy said. “Give me a couple of weeks, though, and it's going to be fabulous.”

Bucky grinned. “I bet.” He watched as she gravitated to the windows again, then joined her. “Just so you know, it's a little weird around here. I can give you a rundown, if you want me to, just so you know what to expect, but I don't want to overstep.”

Darcy raised an eyebrow at him. “What do you mean?”

“I mean... the pack dynamics. If... if you want. I'm not trying to be personal.”

“Oh!” Darcy was struck by the sudden realization that this man was actually from the 1940s. She'd known it before, but hearing him say that drove the point home. Dynamics had been a really big, personal, private issue back then, and he was still acclimating to his changed circumstances. Having missed most of the Dynamic Revolution of the sixties and the Omega Rights movement of the late seventies and eighties, he was probably having trouble navigating the minefield that was modern sex. She gave him a smile. “I would actually love a rundown; whatever you feel comfortable telling me.”

Bucky blew out a nervous breath that Darcy hadn't realized he was holding. “Okay. So, first off, me and Steve. He's my Alpha. Since way before everything. I was all of seventeen when I imprinted on him; he was sixteen and thought I was nuts.” He laughed.

“Aw, I think that's great, though,” Darcy said, giving him a smile. “I mean, aside from the whole _love story for the ages_ angle, just... you know, that you both still have each other, after everything, I think it's... great.” She shrugged helplessly.

He grinned. “Yeah, no, I get what you mean. And it helps a lot. Sometimes waking up to the future ain't what it's cracked up to be. Having Steve there, knowing he knows exactly what I'm going through? Keeps me sane sometimes.” He shook his head. “So, enough about me bein' gone on him. Stark's a Beta, like I mentioned earlier, but you probably know about him, since he's always on the news and such. He's imprinted on Pepper Potts.”

Darcy nodded. “Yeah, it was hard to miss that, when it happened. The tabloids went nuts.”

Bucky nodded. “So, the only full-time Alphas around here are Steve, Pepper, and Thor. But that brings us to Banner.” He ran a hand through his hair. “Banner's the Hulk, you know that, right?” When Darcy nodded, he continued. “So, Banner's an Omega. Super nice guy. But the Hulk's an Alpha.”

Darcy gaped at him. “What.”

“I know, I know. It's the weirdest thing. So he's scented for both.”

“Does he...” Darcy swallowed hard. “Does he... you know.”

“What, rut?” Bucky asked. “I have no idea. Don't really _want_ to know, to be honest.”

“Gods,” Darcy murmured. “I can't imagine...” She couldn't suppress the involuntary shiver that went down her back at the very idea of turning into an Alpha, of having something else inside her body that was a different dynamic. It was beyond her comprehension; the very thought terrified her.

“I know exactly what you mean,” Bucky replied, shuddering slightly in sympathy. He let that sit for a moment before speaking again. “So that's Banner. Try not to freak out; he's really a decent guy, but he's kinda sensitive about the whole thing.”

Darcy nodded. “I'll manage,” she said. “Who else is there?”

“Barton,” Bucky said. “Hawkeye. He's a Beta, but he's independent. If he was gonna imprint on anybody, I think it'd be Nat, but... he can't.”

“Nat - that's Natasha Romanoff? The Black Widow?”

Bucky nodded. “Yeah. She's null.”

Darcy felt her eyes try to bug out. “What? But... but the neutralization process was outlawed globally in - ”

“1942\. I know; I was there. Well, not _there_ , but you know what I mean.” He waved a hand. “Not that it matters; she's null and that's just it. She's not sensitive about it, exactly - not the same way Banner is about switching - but still, it's not something she likes to talk about, so don't bring it up unless you're interested in pissing her off. Which, for the record, ain't something I suggest.”

Darcy nodded, a low horror pulsing in her chest. “Oh, gods. I would never.”

“Nah, I didn't think you would. Still.” He shrugged. “You seem like a decent enough kid. This pack... well, let's just say it ain't everything it could be. Not just yet. But we're getting there.”

“I'll be careful,” Darcy said softly, feeling a whine building up in the back of her throat. “I know where I stand.”

Bucky nodded. “I know you do,” he said. “I'm not saying you don't, or you wouldn't. In fact, I'm not saying nothin' except that every single person here is a very special brand of fucked up, and when you put that much powder into a keg...”

“It only takes a spark,” Darcy finished. “And an unbonded Omega just throws off sparks left and right.”

He reached out and laid a hand on her shoulder. “You need to understand something,” he said, looking into her eyes. “Nobody here will hurt you, and nobody here will let you be hurt. That ain't what I'm saying, okay? Last week, Steve and Stark damn near came to blows over pizza and movie night. It ain't  _you_ I'm worried about causin' a ruckus, see? I'm more worried about makin' sure you understand that there might  _be_ a ruckus. It's like walking in a minefield. I want you to know where it's safe. Okay?”

Darcy nodded. “Okay.”

Despite the fairly reassuring nature of that conversation with Bucky, Darcy was careful to tread lightly around her new acquaintances. She and Jane were both newcomers, but Jane had status within the pack as Thor's bonded Omega. Darcy had none; she was nothing more than Jane's intern. It would be very easy to upset the pack's already-delicate social dynamics, and even if she wasn't driven out, it could cause all sorts of problems that she didn't want to be responsible for.

The safest course of action, she decided, was to simply stay clear of the unbonded Alphas. Thor was safe; he had Jane, and the bond of Alpha to Omega was lifelong and unbreakable. He was as safe for her to be around as her own brothers. Pepper and Steve were an entirely different kettle of fish. Both of them had imprinted Betas, but the Beta imprint did not preclude an Omega bonding. In fact, it was widely recognized that an Alpha-Beta-Omega triad was a far more stable relationship, long term, than an imprinting or a bonding alone.

So she stayed away from the Alphas. Pepper was easy to avoid; she spent about half her time on the West Coast, and when she was in New York, she was usually either in her office or in the penthouse with Tony. Steve, on the other hand, was not so easy to avoid - especially since she and Bucky were starting to become good friends. When he had nothing else to do, Bucky would often come down to the lab to harass her and Jane - so Darcy started putting him to work when he showed up, which only served to make him feel useful, so that he showed up even more. Then Darcy started systematically teaching him about modern pop culture as they worked, starting with the music and movies of the late forties and moving forward chronologically from there.

The problem with that was that whenever Steve got done doing whatever he was doing for the day, he always came looking for Bucky, which made it a little difficult for Darcy to avoid him. Even so, it wasn't so bad when he came to the lab or the common room, filling up the area with the smell of coffee beans and healthy young unbonded Alpha. It was when Bucky and Darcy were in her apartment and he came knocking on the door that things got uncomfortable.

She refused to go to their apartment. It wasn't that she felt unsafe there - not exactly, anyway - but there was something about being inside Steve's den that frightened her. She refused to examine the feeling or the reasoning behind it; she simply put her foot down and said no. If Bucky didn't want to hang out in the public areas, it was her place or nothing. The problem with that was that when Steve came knocking on her door, seeking his Beta, suddenly it was  _her_ den smelling of coffee beans and healthy young unbonded Alpha - and that was a smell that lingered.

Bucky finally asked her about it one day about three months into her stay at the tower. She was standing out on the landing pad, leaning against the railing and enjoying the sunset when he joined her, standing downwind so that the smoke from his cigarette wouldn't sting her eyes. “Can I ask you somethin' kinda personal?”

The phrasing took her by surprise. They'd been friends for long enough that it was odd for him to ask permission. She braced herself. “Sure, I guess,” she replied. “I reserve the right not to answer, though.”

“How come you hide from Steve?”

She took a deep breath. “You don't pull any punches,” she murmured.

He held up his hands. “You ain't gotta tell me if you don't want; I was just curious. But it's none of my business.”

“No, it's okay. I just...” She shrugged, looking down at her hands. “I try to avoid unbonded Alphas as a general rule. Bonding is... not something I ever wanted in my life. I mean, like, I see Jane and Thor, and they're great, and I'm so glad for them, but Thor's from Asgard so he's different. Where I come from, it's not like that.”

Bucky cocked his head. “What do you mean?”

“I don't...” She swallowed hard, her hands trembling a little bit. “I don't _want_ to spend the rest of my life just being someone's Omega,” she admitted. “I don't want to be nothing more than a housekeeper and a cook, spending my days minding the babies and waiting for my Alpha to come home so I can present on command. I love my life the way it is, and I don't want to give it up. Not even for someone like Steve.”

Bucky stared at her. “Is that what you think it's like, being bonded?”

She shrugged, looking away from him. “It's what happens. Sure, they tell you at first that they don't mind for you to have your little career or whatever makes you happy, but then maybe you get a promotion and you have to work later, or the first baby comes and somebody has to stay home with it, and the next thing you know, you're just a dinner maker and an incubator and a w-warm, wet hole to fuck.” She was appalled to realize that tears were making their way down her face; she wiped at them with her fingers and tried to make them stop falling.

“I don't know who told you that load of garbage,” Bucky said, his voice vibrating the way it did when he got worked up about something, “but that's exactly what it is. It's a load of garbage.”

“Nobody told it to me, Bucky,” she snapped. “I watched it happen. Over and over again. My mother, my grandfather, aunts, uncles, friends' parents. My sister. It almost happened to me, too; that's why I got the hell out of there when I had a chance.”

His face darkened. “What do you mean, it almost happened to you?”

“I mean, I had a boyfriend my senior year of high school who was an Alpha, and when I went into heat, he tried to mount and force a bond.” Her hands clenched tightly on the railing. “And the whole time, he just kept saying how great it would be when he bred me.” She shuddered hard and wiped at her tears again. “I won't live like that. Not for anybody.”

“Darce.” Bucky stepped up close to her, reaching out a tentative hand to touch her shoulder. “You gotta know how fucked up that is. That ain't right. I don't know where you grew up, but gods, it wasn't even like that when I was a _kid_.”

Darcy gave a soft, wet laugh. “Sure,” she replied, in a tone that clearly said  _what would you know; you're a Beta._ She shook her head, then changed the subject. “Any particular reason you were wanting to know that, or was it just idle curiosity?”

He sighed and stayed silent for a minute. “Steve's interested,” he said finally. “But he said every time he tries to talk to you, you shut him down, and he can't figure out why.”

Her mouth went dry. “Steve wants to...?”

“He wants to know if you'd maybe be interested in havin' dinner or somethin'. He ain't lookin' to bond you, not right away and not at all if you ain't interested. And he ain't like those Alphas you grew up with, either.”

“So he, what, sent you to soften me up?”

“Hell no.” Bucky scoffed. “He has no idea I'm even talkin' to you about this. Probably have my head if he found out. I'm here on my own to let you know what the situation is, because Steve's never been any good at talkin' to dames, especially not pretty Omega dames like you. He likes you. He likes your scent, and he likes your personality, and he thinks you're smokin' hot, and I thought if you were interested, maybe you could let him know. But if you're really not, I'll put him out of his misery.”

Darcy struggled for a moment with the bone-deep desire to shut him down. To say a flat  _no_ and walk away. She knew that Steve was a different kind of guy than the ones she grew up with, that he would never try to force-mount or force-bond if she didn't want it. But could she trust Bucky's judgment when he said that bonding to Steve wouldn't be the end of everything?

She swallowed hard, looking up at the rising moon, and took a deep breath, then another, then another. She closed her eyes and forced herself to relax, forced herself to stop  _instincting_ and start  _thinking_ . Bucky was asking, on Steve's behalf, for a date. Not a mating, not a bonding. Just a date. A date wasn't a promise of anything other than a (hopefully) mutually enjoyable evening out, doing something other than sitting around listening to Tony congratulate himself. And Darcy Lewis, despite everything, had never before allowed fear to rule her life.

She opened her eyes and turned to face him. “All right,” she heard herself say. “I'm not promising anything, but dinner sounds good.”

It was rare that Bucky used his wide, real smile - but he did then, practically beaming at her. “It'll be great,” he said. “You'll see, Darce. I promise.”

Darcy smiled back reflexively, already wondering if she was making a mistake. But Bucky didn't give her time to take it back; he turned and went inside, no doubt hurrying to go tell Steve the good news. She turned back to the darkened city, her worry settling like a rock in the pit of her stomach. She thought about fleeing to the safety of her apartment, but she didn't. Firming up her chin, she reminded herself that she was not an  _animal_ and she would not be ruled by fear. She gripped the railing and stayed where she was.

And sure enough, she'd only been alone for about twenty minutes before the door slid open behind her, and the smell of coffee beans wrapped around her brain.

He didn't come close to her; she was grateful for that. He moved away from the door, giving her a clear path to escape, which told her that Bucky had at least given him the Cliffs Notes version of what she'd said, and he leaned against the railing about thirty feet away from her. She struggled not to drown herself in his scent; she struggled to control her own emotions.

He said, “I don't want you to feel like you're obligated to go out with me just to keep peace.”

“I don't.” She glanced his direction; he wasn't looking at her. Instead, he was staring out at the city. 

He nodded. “Bucky said...” He paused, clearly trying to work out the words in his head. “He said you've had bad experiences with Alphas in the past.”

That was actually kind of funny; she gave a soft laugh. “Yeah, that's one way of putting it,” she agreed.

He sighed, finally turning to look at her. There was something in his eyes that touched Darcy to the quick - something small and vulnerable. “You reek of fear,” he said bluntly. “Just standing here talking to you, that's all I can smell. If you're afraid of me, Darce, then say so and I'll leave you alone. I won't...” He paused, swallowing hard, and shook his head. “You know Bucky. What we have, me and him, it's special. And if I was gonna bond... I just... I don't want an Omega who's afraid of me. So if you are, if you're just going along with this because Bucky asked you to, because this pack is still so fucked up and you're afraid of saying no and making things worse...”

“I'm not,” she interrupted. Her cheeks went red at her own temerity, but she managed to repeat herself, and to sound firm when she did it. “I'm not. I mean, okay, yeah, I'm scared. No point in lying about that, since you can obviously tell. But the rest of it, I mean. Going along to get along and pack dynamics and all. No.” She took a deep breath. “I don't want to let my fear dictate my life choices. And Bucky's a good guy, and he's head over heels for you, so clearly you must be an okay kind of guy yourself. So I'm... I'm willing to take a chance. I told him, and I'm telling you, I'm not making any promises about anything. But he asked me to dinner on your behalf, and I'm saying yes to dinner. To see what happens.”

Steve studied her face for a long moment, then gave her a sudden, shy smile. “Okay,” he said, nodding once. “Dinner it is, then. Tomorrow?”

She smiled back. “Sure. Tomorrow sounds great. Nothing fancy, though, okay? I don't have anything fancy to wear.”

Steve laughed. “Nothing fancy. I promise. Seven?”

“Seven sounds great.” Darcy straightened up. “I guess I'll see you tomorrow.” With a smile, she turned and headed inside. Once she was alone in her apartment, she flopped down onto the couch and dragged her favorite afghan over her face. “Oh my gooooooooooooooooods,” she moaned. “What am I doing?”


	2. Chapter 2

When Darcy went to bed that night, it was with the expectation that she would not sleep much between nightmares; when she woke up in the morning, she found herself both well rested and deeply surprised. “Huh,” she said as she stared at her ceiling. “That's weird.”

In the past, it hadn't taken much to trigger nightmares of that Alpha in high school; it seemed that Steve, despite being an Alpha and despite scaring the pants off her most of the time, was not one of her triggers. That was... a good thing, she supposed. If she was going to date him, even once, it would help that he  _didn't_ cause bad dreams.

She pushed herself out of bed and fumbled her way through her morning routine, stumbling up to the communal kitchen for breakfast once she was dressed and capable of being anything other than surly. Bucky was cooking - one of his favorite things to do - and when she made her way into the room, he gave her a grin and cracked a couple of eggs into a frying pan for her. “Morning, Doll,” he greeted her, reaching out to take her hand. He rubbed his wrist against hers before letting her go again.

Darcy blinked at him. “Did you just  _ scent-mark _ me?”

He shrugged. “Yeah?”

She glowered at him. He grinned back at her, passing her the bowl full of bacon strips. “There's cinnamon toast in the warmer,” he said.

She grabbed a plate and made her way across the kitchen, grumbling the whole way about pushy Betas and attitude adjustments. She might have grumbled on the way back as well, but there was cinnamon toast in her mouth, so whatever she was saying wasn't very understandable. Bucky, smirking, dished up her eggs and she grabbed some bacon out of the bowl, then slumped onto a stool at the kitchen counter and sighed at her plate.

Bucky leaned against the counter on the other side. “You okay?”

She nodded. “Just a little out of sorts,” she admitted. “I was expecting to have nightmares last night, but I didn't, so now I'm not sure how to feel about things.”

He cocked an eyebrow at her. “Never heard of anybody bein' upset they  _ didn't _ have nightmares before.”

She made a face at him, chewing on some bacon. “Not upset,” she corrected him. “Weirded out, maybe.” She shrugged.

“Well, maybe you should try something people keep suggesting to me.”

“What's that?”

“Just go with it.”

She made another face at him, picked up her plate, and swept from the room, as haughty as an offended queen. A few minutes later, she swept back again, picked up her glass of orange juice, and swept back out, utterly ignoring the howls of his laughter as they followed her down the hallway.

The lab was quiet that day, a rarity for which Darcy was deeply grateful. Jane was deep in the process of editing a journal article, and there wasn't actually much for Darcy to do except mess around on the internet. She ended up spending most of her day on Tumblr reblogging pictures of hot Alphas and Avengers fanart. Around four, she finally stood up and closed her laptop. “Jane. I'm leaving.”

There was a moment of silence, and Darcy balled up a sheet of paper, using it to bean Jane on the back of her head. The tiny scientist jerked, spinning around. “Hey! What was that for?”

“I'm leaving,” Darcy said again. “It's a little early, but there's legit nothing for me to do and I...” She paused, ran a hand through her hair, and mumbled something.

Jane's eyes narrowed. “That last part again, please?”

Darcy shifted uncomfortably. “I need to get ready for a date.”

Jane's jaw dropped. “I  _ thought _ that's what you said, but I wasn't sure. Darcy, that's great! You know I've been thinking you needed more of a social life. Who is it? Is it that pretty Beta girl from the coffee shop?”

“No,” Darcy said. She gnawed on her lip for a moment before admitting, “It's Steve.”

Jane's jaw dropped again. “What?!”  


“Well, and Bucky,” Darcy added. “I'm pretty sure he's coming, too.”

“Darcy,” Jane breathed. “Are you sure?”

Darcy dropped back down into her chair, putting her head into her hands. “No,” she admitted. “I've never been less sure of anything in my life.”

Jane paused long enough to save her work. She said, “JARVIS, could you engage privacy mode on this lab, please?” When the AI acknowledged that the doors were locked and the cameras off, Jane scooted her chair over beside Darcy's, taking her friend's hands in her own. “Darcy,” she said gently, “I know you've had... issues with Alphas in the past. And you've said you didn't want to bond. I need you to be honest with me, Omega to Omega. Are you okay with this? Is he pressuring you? Because if he is, if you don't want this, I'll talk to Thor. You know he loves you, and he'll make sure Steve leaves you alone.”

“No, no, it's okay,” Darcy said, squeezing Jane's hands. “Thank you, though. I know you would. But it's... really, it's okay.”

“Talk to me,” Jane said. “Tell me how this happened. Because the last time we talked about this, you were dead-set against Alphas in any way, shape, or form - not that I can blame you, really.”

Darcy swallowed hard, rubbing at her suspiciously-stinging eyes. “It's all Bucky's fault, really,” she said. “He started it.”

“What do you mean?”

Darcy took a deep, shivery breath, and explained about the previous night's conversation with Bucky on the landing pad, and the subsequent conversation with Steve. When she was done, she said, “The funny thing is, I expected to have nightmares about Jacob last night. You know how easy it is for that to happen. But I didn't. I slept right through and didn't even wake up once. And I...”

Jane waited a moment for her to collect her thoughts, then squeezed Darcy's hands. “You what, sweetie?”

Darcy closed her eyes. “I th-think I l-like him.” When she opened her eyes again, they were shiny and wet, and her voice was a bare whisper. “He... when he comes around, and I smell him, it... my brain just...”

Jane laughed softly, pulling Darcy in for a hug. “Oh, honey. You don't have to tell me. That's  _ exactly _ how I felt about Thor when we first met. He smelled  _ so good _ \- like bacon and hot maple syrup - and I could barely concentrate.”

Darcy leaned forward, resting her forehead on Jane's shoulder, and laughed softly. “Steve smells like coffee,” she admitted. “God, he smells like coffee and sex and he's just so fucking  _ nice _ I can't stand it.”

“And Bucky?” Jane asked, curious. “What's he smell like?”

Darcy had to think about it. Bucky's own scent, as an imprinted Beta, was naturally muted, but she'd spent enough time around him that she'd come to recognize it. She drew on the scent memory and considered it for a long moment before saying, “Sugar cookies.” She looked up at Jane. “I'm so totally screwed, aren't I?”

Jane gave her a sympathetic smile. “They're both really hot, if that helps.”

“It really doesn't,” Darcy said, laughing.

Jane shut down the lab after that, decreeing that Darcy's date was important enough that she needed backup while getting ready. Darcy groaned theatrically, but then grinned broadly, and together they took the elevator up to the residential floor. They weren't expecting to get company, but at the gym level, the car stopped and the doors slid open.

The tiny car was flooded with the combined smells of Steve and Bucky, who had apparently just finished working out and were on their way upstairs to get ready for their date. Jane subtly maneuvered Darcy into the corner behind her, gripping her friend's hand, as the two sweaty super soldiers greeted them both politely and stepped into the elevator. Steve kept a bland, friendly smile on his face, but Bucky tossed Darcy a wink and a cocky grin, and Darcy felt more than heard a tiny whine escape from the back of her throat.

It was ten floors from the gym to the residential level, and by the time the doors slid open again, Darcy was dizzy and near hyperventilation from the shallow breaths she was taking. Steve elbowed Bucky back and gestured to Jane that they should go first, clearly recognizing Darcy's distress. Jane hurried her friend down the hall to her apartment. Darcy fell to her knees just inside the door, taking deep gulps of clear air that smelled only like herself. It was several minutes before she could speak. “Oh gods,” she finally managed as Jane crouched next to her, rubbing her back. “This is a terrible idea. I can't do this. Jane, I can't do this.”

“Darcy,” Jane said softly, taking her friend's hands. “You  _ can _ do this.” She gripped Darcy's chin, forcing her to meet her eyes. “You don't want to be ruled by your fear, remember? This is the fear talking. It's just pheromones.”

Darcy nodded, swallowing hard, and forced herself to breathe calmly, clearing her senses of the combined smell of Steve and Bucky. “Okay,” she said softly. “Okay. I can do this.”

“Good girl.” Jane helped her up off the floor, then pushed her gently toward her bedroom. “Go jump in the shower. I'll pick out your outfit. Where are you going, anyway?”

“I don't know,” Darcy admitted, kicking her shoes off and nudging them under the little table by the door. “We just said nothing fancy.”

“Well, that could be anything,” Jane said.

There was a knock at the door, and Jane shoved Darcy again. “Go. Shower. Quickly.”

“Going.” Darcy darted off into the bedroom, and Jane pulled the door open once she was gone. Bucky was standing there, looking both sheepish and freshly showered. She raised an eyebrow. “Did you need something?”

“I just wanted to make sure she was okay.”

Jane frowned at him. “The two of you idiots almost triggered a panic attack,” she said. “Which part of traumatized, unbonded Omega did you fail to comprehend?”

“Well, in our defense, she wasn't supposed to be there,” Bucky pointed out. “You guys usually work until five.”

Jane bit her lip. That was accurate. And it would have been rude for the two men to refuse to ride on the elevator with them; such an action, even if taken for pheromonal reasons, often smacked of old-school dynamic-prejudice. She took a deep breath. “You have a point,” she acknowledged. “She's fine, though. Taking a shower.”

Bucky nodded. “Okay. I just... I wanted to make sure.”

Jane could tell from his expression that he genuinely felt bad about what had happened. She took pity. “Where are you taking her tonight? So I know how to dress her.”

Bucky smiled slightly. “Dinner and a movie,” he said. “We thought it might be best to keep things basic. There's a little Italian place in Brooklyn that's right up from a retro movie house that's showing  _ The Maltese Falcon _ .”

Jane nodded. “That sounds really good, actually,” she said. “She likes that movie.”

Bucky relaxed perceptibly at Jane's approval. “Good,” he said softly. “Good, I... I'm glad.” He swallowed hard, then glanced down at his undershirt and sweatpants. “Okay. I'm gonna go... get dressed.”

Jane grinned. “Good idea.” She watched him turn and head back down the hallway, then she pushed the door shut and went into Darcy's bedroom to dig through her closet.

At seven o'clock on the dot, Darcy was standing in her living room dressed in a black wrap skirt, a silver scoop-necked top, and black tights. Her hair was pulled back and up in a simple twist that cascaded curls down her neck, and her makeup was simple but striking, her eyes lined with perfect wings thanks to Jane's steady hand and her lips painted a deep plum. She was just stepping into a pair of silver platform wedge sandals when there was a knock on her door.

She looked up at Jane, her eyes wide and panicked. Jane squeezed her shoulders. “You can do this,” she murmured. “Don't let the fear control you.”

“I can do this,” she whispered. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. Then she opened them, squared her shoulders, and headed for the door, grabbing the little silver clutch she'd borrowed from Jane on the way. She pulled the door open.

They were standing back in the hallway rather than crowding the door, which Darcy thought was a nice touch. Steve was in front, dressed in black jeans and a blue button-up shirt. The formality of the dark blue tie was offset by the fact that his sleeves were rolled up to his elbows. Behind him and slightly to his right was Bucky, in shiny dark blue jeans and a black shirt. He wore no tie, but his sleeves were also rolled up, exposing the leather wristbands traditionally worn by an imprinted Beta. They set off both of his arms, striking against the muscle of the right and the metal of the left.

Darcy swallowed hard. Steve gave her a gentle smile. “Hi,” he said. “You look amazing.”

“Thank you,” she managed. Jane stepped up behind her and gave her a little shove, and she stumbled forward into the hallway. 

Bucky snickered, and the sound broke her paralysis. She took a deep breath. “Okay,” she said. “This is me, not panicking. That's a good start, right?”

“Absolutely,” Steve replied, and his voice was warm as he offered her his hand. “Shall we?”

“Let's shall,” Darcy agreed, taking his hand. They headed down the hall toward the elevator.

Steve hailed a taxi at the foot of the tower and gave the driver an intersection in Brooklyn. Bucky slid in first, and Steve put his hand on the door. “Would you rather sit on the outside?” he asked.

“No, I... It's okay,” Darcy said. “I'm all right.” She slid into the middle, and as Steve tucked himself in and shut the door, Bucky took her left hand in his right and gave it a gentle, reassuring squeeze.

The Beta leaned in to whisper into her ear. “I promise you're safe with us,” he murmured, and she smiled softly.

“I know,” she murmured back, squeezing his hand in return.

The ride to Brooklyn was easy; Bucky, because he knew both of them so well, was able to guide the conversation into places where they could both talk easily: first food, then travel, and then current events - wherein Darcy was startled and pleased to discover that Steve was as socially progressive as she was, if not more. As the cab pulled up at the corner near the restaurant, Steve said, “You expected me to be like one of those babbling heads on FOX News?”

“No, of course not,” she protested as he paid the cabbie and opened the door. He stepped out onto the sidewalk and offered her a hand out, then offered his other hand to Bucky. “I just... kind of expected you to be more conservative, I guess.” She paused, considering. “Because there's a stereotype that people from your generation are sort of conservative and cranky. But really, now that I think about it, that's not accurate at all. It's not  _ your _ generation. It's the one that came after you, that got all the benefits of social programs and things without understanding what it took to get them in place.”

Bucky nodded. “And it seems like a lot of folks are still mad over the various rights movements in the sixties. People who feel like they got some kinda gods-given right to be in control of everybody else.”

“Rich old white Alphas,” Darcy said, grinning. Bucky cackled.

“Thank God I'm not rich,” Steve said mildly.

Bucky elbowed him. “Pretty sure you ain't old, either, Alpha.”

“Well, you know,” Steve said, giving them both that  _ aw-shucks _ grin he was so good at. “Ninety-six this July, I guess.”

“Yeah, well, that makes me ninety-seven already, so how's about you shut your pie hole,  _ Gramps _ ?”

“Tell me,” Darcy interjected mildly as Steve pulled the door open, “what was it like back when you had to wrestle dinosaurs for food and dress in the skins of your enemies?”

“Can't speak for Stevie, but my enemy-skin loincloth was a lot breezier than these boxer briefs,” Bucky replied, grinning broadly.

Steve studied the two of them as they passed through the door in front of them. “This was clearly a bad idea,” he said, as if to himself. “I should never have allowed the two of you to get within shouting distance of each other.”

They both turned to look at him in unison, two dark heads giving him flirty glances over their left shoulders, and Steve couldn't help the shudder of arousal that went up his back at the sight. “Shit,” he swore softly. “The two of you are gonna be the death of me.”

At the sight of that shudder, a change went over Darcy's face. Something dark and feral entered her expression, and her sharp little teeth bit down on her plump lower lip as she stared at him. Her mouth curled up into a slow, sexy smile, and he shuddered again, just slightly. The fear that had been lurking in the back of her eyes was gone, replaced by the sudden, visceral knowledge of the power she had over him as the Omega that he wanted. And he realized, very suddenly, that he had taken a tiger by the tail.

He couldn't help but smile back, helpless before her.


	3. Chapter 3

Sitting across the table from Darcy, with Bucky beside him, was a form of torture Steve had never even imagined before. It was absolutely delicious, and he would gladly torture himself a thousand more times. He was more or less used to the smell of warm spice cake that was how his mind interpreted Bucky; every time Darcy moved, the gentle scent of vanilla insinuated itself into his senses, and it was driving him crazy.

Still, he was determined to show her a good time, and to show her that he wasn't like those Alphas she'd grown up around. Bucky had told him everything she'd said about how she was raised, and the way she'd been treated, and Steve was determined to prove to her that he wasn't that kind of Alpha. So he clamped down, exerting his self-control in ways that he hadn't needed to since the war, and he focused on her.

Conversation over dinner stayed light and cheerful; Darcy told funny stories on Jane and Thor, Steve and Bucky told funny stories on each other and their teammates, and they all ate their fill of delicious Italian food. When the meal was done, they spilled out onto the sidewalk into the cool evening and started up the sidewalk toward the movie theater. Darcy automatically walked on Steve's left side - the traditional place of an Omega, as a Beta's was on the right - and Steve ruthlessly strangled any attempt that his brain made to read meaning into it. Instead, he offered her his arm, and he smiled when she took it, and they both laughed at Bucky, who ranged a little ahead of them both, doing his best Bogey and somehow pulling it off even without a fedora.

By the time they made it to the theater, both Steve and Darcy were in stitches, and Bucky was grinning his real grin bright enough to outshine the sun. Steve bought their tickets, Bucky bought sodas and the extra-large popcorn, and Darcy chose their seats - in the back of the theater, with one of them on either side of her. They settled in just as the movie started, and all three of them enjoyed it thoroughly.

About halfway through the movie, Steve glanced down at the popcorn bucket - or rather, the place where the bucket should have been in Darcy's lap - and discovered that Bucky's right hand was resting on her thigh, her left hand laying on top of his. The rush of desire that shot through him at that moment was one of the most intense things he'd ever felt outside of a battlefield. His hand clenched on the armrest between his seat and Darcy's. A moment later, he felt Darcy's fingers stroke the back of his hand, and when he relaxed his grip and turned his hand over, her fingers slipped between his, her palm rubbing warmly against his own.

He couldn't help himself; he leaned over just enough to nuzzle against her temple, taking in a deep breath of her scent. She stiffened slightly in her seat, and he backed off immediately, raising her hand and pressing his lips to the back of it apologetically. From the corner of his eye, he saw Bucky's thumb rubbing soothing circles at the top of Darcy's knee, and he wanted very badly to kick himself. He waited for her to withdraw her hand, to pull away from him, to start smelling again of bitter fear - but she didn't.

He took a chance and glanced at her face; she was looking back at him, a little shy and a little more nervous than she had been - nervous enough, in fact, for her scent to be dampened, but without the raw fear that he'd smelled on her the night before. He gave her his best, most apologetic smile, and she smiled back just a little bit. She gave his hand a quick squeeze that told him all was forgiven, and he relaxed, forcing his attention back to the movie screen.

When the credits rolled, they stood and left the theater, all three of them hand in hand. Bucky flagged down a taxi and they slipped inside, none of them speaking. Steve felt like his face must be a thousand shades of red, but neither Bucky nor Darcy commented on it; instead, Bucky calmly asked Darcy about her plans for the next day, and Darcy quietly said that she didn't have any. With a sideways glance at Steve over Darcy's head, Bucky casually mentioned an art exhibit that had recently opened at the MoMA, and Darcy expressed an interest in accompanying them to it, and their second date was arranged for the next afternoon entirely without Steve's input.

He thought it was probably for the best; if he spoke just then, with her hand still warm in his, he was likely to say something very, very stupid and ruin everything. Thank God for Bucky, who knew that as well as Steve did, and saved him from himself. Steve stayed quiet for the whole trip back to the tower, letting Bucky do what Bucky did best, and by the time they climbed out of the taxi, that sweet vanilla smell was back full force and Steve's faux pas seemed to be smoothed over.

The only thing that kept Steve from deciding he'd totally destroyed his chances was the fact that, through everything, Darcy never let go of his hand. He trailed her and Bucky into the elevator, allowing her to subtly guide him, and he stood to the side of her, where she could see him but he wasn't crowding her. The elevator ride was torture for him; underneath the calm surface, both Darcy and Bucky were worked up enough that they were scenting heavily, and Steve wondered briefly if this was how Darcy had felt earlier that evening. He kept a lid on it, though, maintaining his best expression of calm enjoyment, and finally the elevator doors opened and let them out on the residential floor.

They walked her to her door, and as they made their way down the hall, Bucky released Darcy's hand, shifting position until he was behind Steve and to his right. At Darcy's door, she released Steve's hand as well, turning to face them with a strange half-smile on her face. “I had a really good time tonight,” she said, her voice uncharacteristically soft as her eyes switched back and forth between the two of them. She swallowed, then said, “I'm glad you asked me.”

“We're glad you said yes, Darce,” Bucky murmured.

Steve smiled. “And we're glad you said yes to tomorrow, too,” he added.

Her smile changed then, grew more genuine, and her eyes rested on his for a long moment. “I'm looking forward to it,” she said, and he knew that she meant it.

He reached out his hand, and she laid her palm against his. He lifted it, pressing a kiss to the back of her hand, and then he released her, stepping back. It wasn't what he wanted to do - what he  _ wanted _ to do was tip her head back and lick that deliciously sweet scent off her neck until she was whining under his touch, but he wasn't stupid enough to think he'd be able to get away with that kind of forward move so soon after his blunder in the movie theater. So he held back, maintained distance, clamped down, controlled.

Bucky, on the other hand, had no such compunctions; he took the hand Steve had kissed and raised it to his collar, even as he lifted his own right hand to the side of her neck, and Steve gritted his teeth and watched, feeling his blood pounding hot beneath his skin as the two of them shared scent. It was a perfectly normal thing for Betas and Omegas to do after a successful date, but that didn't stop him from feeling a hot spike of desire or a thick surge of jealousy.

When Bucky released her, she smiled at him, slow and tender, and stepped back, reaching for her doorknob. “Good night, boys,” she said softly, slipping back into her apartment and shutting the door behind her.

Bucky and Steve both stood there for a long moment, staring at the door. Then Bucky turned to face Steve and Steve surged forward, his hands coming up to cup Bucky's face and his lips descending to devour Bucky's mouth. His Beta was covered in her scent, absolutely  _ coated _ in vanilla, and Steve's hips surged against Bucky's, desperate. “I need you,” he growled into Bucky's ear, and Bucky whined low in his chest.

“Alpha,” Bucky managed to whisper. “Please.”

Steve released him, suddenly remembering that they were still standing in the hallway right outside Darcy's door. “Go,” he said, his voice thick. “Go  _ now _ .”

Bucky didn't hesitate; he bolted down the hallway, heading for their own door as if the hounds of hell were on his heels.

They might as well have been; Steve gave Bucky a mere fifty-foot head start before coming after him, filled with the urge to chase, to capture, to  _ master  _ and  _ subdue _ . Bucky got to their door first, but Steve caught him just inside the doorway, swinging the door shut behind him with one arm while wrapping the other around Bucky's waist, taking him to the floor right there in the living room.

Bucky whined again, wriggling hard, and Steve lunged, burying his teeth in the crook of Bucky's neck. The Beta froze instinctively, whimpering, arching,  _ presenting _ under him and the whole time, smelling so strongly of Darcy that Steve almost couldn't think straight. He ranged forward, his nose digging deep into the scent glands at Bucky's neck, searching for every drop of that smell, warm spice and vanilla, Beta and Omega, Bucky and Darcy. Steve groaned, rolling Bucky over underneath him and burying his hands in Bucky's shaggy hair and sucking a dark mark on the side of Bucky's neck as his hips rolled against Bucky's.

“Fuck,” Steve managed. “Bucky,  _ fuck. _ Did you have to fucking  _ bathe _ in her?”

Bucky laughed. “Is it good for you, Steve?” he asked, his voice hoarse with desire. “Do you like the way she smells on me?”

“ _ Fuck _ ,” Steve snarled again. “Makes me want to climb inside you and never come out.”

Bucky's right hand slid down to the waistband of Steve's pants, flicking the button and pulling down the zipper before sliding inside, gripping Steve's cock just above the half-inflated knot. “Do it, then,” Bucky challenged him, his metal hand coming up to grip Steve's hair and tug. “ _ Do it _ .”

Steve forced himself to his feet, grabbing Bucky's outstretched hand and hauling him up as well, then giving him a shove toward the bedroom. “Go,” he said simply, and Bucky went, grinning broadly the whole way. Steve took a moment to calm himself, to lock the door, to force himself to relax. He wasn't in rut, for godsakes; he  _ could _ manage to have sex with his Beta without being a complete Neanderthal.

Maybe.

He snorted in dry amusement at himself before heading into the bedroom. Bucky was waiting, stretched out naked across the bed, his hand stroking his thick, knotless cock. “There you are,” Bucky said, grinning slightly. “Thought maybe you got lost on the way.”

Steve growled softly, shucking his clothes as he crossed the room, a hot, demanding expression creeping onto his face. “Get over here,” he growled, reaching for Bucky. Bucky came with a grin, placing himself in Steve's hands, letting Steve manhandle him. In moments, Steve was sitting on the side of the bed and Bucky was kneeling between his spread thighs, his wrists held in Steve's iron grip, his own cock rock hard and leaking precome as he took Steve's between his lips.

Steve groaned, his head falling backward as Bucky began to suck and lick at him, taking him in deep, drawing back to suck on his head, pulling off completely to mouth at the sensitive underside or lap at the knot, using all the tricks he knew to make Steve shiver and curse and groan and writhe, until suddenly Steve was coming, painting Bucky's chest with white, and Bucky was arching forward to let it happen.

Steve took a moment to rub some of the come into Bucky's skin, right around his scent glands, before grabbing him and pulling him up and onto the bed. He pushed Bucky down onto his back, stretching Bucky's arms over his head. “Do not move,” Steve ordered, his voice a bare rumble low in his chest, and Bucky whimpered in acquiescence.

Steve dug into the bedside table, pulling out the lube, and he slicked two fingers, pushing them gently but firmly into Bucky's tight hole. Bucky let out a soft sound of pleasure, his body arching, his cock bobbing red and desperate and enticing just in front of Steve. Steve, enticed, leaned down and mouthed at it, filling his mouth with the flavor of Bucky before releasing him again, getting a whine in response.

Steve chuckled, carefully stretching Bucky with his fingers. “Patience,” he said simply, added some more lube to his hand, and then pushed a third finger into Bucky's body.

Bucky cried out, shuddering, his hands clenching in the bedcovers above his head. “Don't move,” Steve reminded him, fucking him slowly, his fingers occasionally brushing across the hard lump of Bucky's prostate and making the Beta jerk and shout. It only took a minute or so of this sweet, delicate torture for Bucky to start begging Steve to fuck him, to take him, to own him,  _ please, need you inside me, Alpha, please, give me your cock, Alpha, please! _

When that happened, Steve slowly withdrew his fingers from Bucky's body, slicked his cock, and lined himself up. “Are you ready?” he murmured.

“Yes, Alpha, please, Steve, please, fuck me!”

Grinning fiercely, Steve pushed into Bucky, sliding all the way down to his knot in one slow thrust. Bucky whined, arching under him and wriggling, trying to take more, his body grasping, desperate. “Please,” he begged. “Please, Alpha, want your knot, give it to me, please!”

“Shh,” Steve whispered, leaning down to kiss Bucky, trapping his hard cock between their bodies. “You know you can't; I won't hurt you.”

Bucky whined in disappointment, but Steve was firm on this. They had this discussion every so often. Betas weren't meant to take knots; their bodies couldn't stretch wide enough to accommodate one, and the one time Steve had given in to Bucky's pleading and tried to knot him, it had not ended well. He had vowed to both of them that he would never hurt Bucky like that again, and his knot stayed outside Bucky's body, regardless of how much Bucky begged and whimpered. Instead, he focused on thrusting, bracing himself against the mattress with one hand, gripping Bucky's cock with the other, and fucking him slow and deep, reveling in Bucky's pleas and whimpers and whines, grinding his knot against Bucky's ass and jerking Bucky's cock until the Beta came, crying out helplessly and splattering both of their stomachs with his spend.

Once Bucky was finished, Steve turned his focus to his own pleasure, lifting Bucky's left leg by the back of the knee and pulling it out a little bit to give himself more room to maneuver. Encouraged by Bucky's low whispers telling him how good he felt, Steve built up a powerful rhythm, a quick, dirty grind at the end of each thrust, and Bucky's ass clamped down on his cock with every slow pull, hot and soft and tight and wet and wonderful.

And then Bucky whimpered beneath him, his hands still obediently above his head, and whispered, “Please, Alpha, please give me your come,” and Steve was gone, shoving in as deeply as he dared, his eyes clenching shut as he filled Bucky up. Bucky whimpered, a last small spurt of come escaping his own cock, and then suddenly the energy went out of Steve completely and he collapsed on top of Bucky, his nose buried in the crook of Bucky's neck, breathing deeply of the mingled smells of Beta, Omega, sweat, and sex, all overlaid by the dark muskiness of his own scent.

He shuddered hard. If he hadn't just come twice, he would probably get worked up over that all over again. He could, in fact, if he gave himself half a chance. But he didn't; instead, he separated himself from Bucky gently, savoring his Beta's whine of loss, and flopped onto the bed beside him. Bucky curled into him immediately, and he raised one arm, tucking it around the darker man and tugging him in close.

They dozed for a time, until Steve forced himself to rouse and to chivvy Bucky into the shower. The hot water didn't wash away the smell of Darcy that clung to Bucky's skin, but Steve was calmer, able to bury his nose in the hollow of Bucky's collarbone and just  _ breathe _ without the desperate need of earlier. 

Sometimes, in the darkest recesses of his mind, a thought would surface that the serum had changed more than just his size; there was a darker edge to him now than there was before, wilder and more dangerous. He had always been ready to fight if he needed to, but there was a feeling now that there were fangs and claws just under his skin that weren't there before.

Sometimes he thought that was maybe not such a good thing.

Once they were clean and mostly dry, he steered his half-asleep Beta back to the bed and they tumbled in. He tugged the sheet and the blanket over their bodies and Bucky curled up against him, trusting as only an imprinted Beta could be, his face against the side of Steve's rib cage, his knees drawn up against Steve's hip. Steve cuddled him close and they slept.

In the morning, Bucky was gone when Steve woke; this was not a surprise. He took his breakfast-making duties very seriously. Feeding the team was one of the first ways in which he was able to be of use to them, when he first came in from the cold. They had all been working together with SHIELD's best doctors to deactivate the Winter Soldier, and cooking was one of the ways Bucky found to get out of his own head. He still sought ways to be of use that didn't involve killing, which was why he spent about half of his time in Jane's lab with her and Darcy. He still went out with the team if he was needed, but he only took kill shots if there was no other choice, and he had told Steve several times that if another sniper should appear who could take his place, he would give it up gladly.

Sometimes, Steve worried about Bucky's willingness to give up his place on the team. Other times, he understood that it wasn't his place on the team that Bucky wanted to be rid of. As dysfunctional as their pack was, Bucky's place in it was firm and unshakeable. If he never went out on another mission, he would still be pack, and not just because of Steve. Bucky was pack because they  _ made _ him pack, and he would always be pack, even if his contributions were limited to the culinary realm. 

It was not the team that Bucky wished to be quit of; it was the violence and the bloodshed. Bucky had had enough of violence and bloodshed for ten men. Steve could not fault him for being sick to death of that crimson tide.

The Alpha rolled out of bed and dressed, asking JARVIS for a rundown of his schedule while he brushed his teeth and combed his hair. He had a briefing at ten, but nothing else until the MoMA date with Darcy at three, so he made his way down to the communal kitchen. Jane and Pepper were sitting at the table, enjoying stacks of pancakes and bacon and watching as Bucky and Darcy teased one another.

Steve sat down, claiming a plate full of pancakes, and watched with a gentle smile as Darcy and his Beta played like puppies. Pepper said, “I've been wondering how long it would take.”

Steve cast a long look at her. “I was waiting,” he finally admitted, his voice low. “I didn't want to step on your toes.”

Pepper gave him a smile, accepting without question the implication that her own Alpha status in the pack was higher than his. “You wouldn't,” she assured him. “Tony is really all I can handle; adding an Omega on top of him would make all three of us miserable. Especially an Omega like Darcy.”

“It's not really her fault, you know,” Jane said softly, aware that she was stepping uninvited into what was essentially Alpha business, but unable to leave her friend undefended. “She came out of a really bad situation.”

Pepper nodded. “I'm aware,” she said. “It's not a reflection on her as a person, just a comment on her personality. She's  _ too _ much like Tony; she'd be the flame to his kerosene.”

Jane glanced up at Pepper, took in the sincerity on the female Alpha's face, and nodded. “I just... wanted you to know.”

Pepper smiled. “Thank you, Jane. I appreciate that.”

Jane smiled back, returning her focus to her pancakes and the scratch pad full of equations that rested on the table beside her. Pepper and Steve turned their attention to the pair in the kitchen, who were now cleaning up the dishes, and Steve smirked. When Bucky looked up, glancing into the dining area to make sure nobody needed anything, he caught Steve's eye and smirked back. Then he nudged Darcy.

She looked up at him and he jerked his head; when she turned to look, Steve gave her a warm, approving smile. She flushed, ducking her head shyly, and he grinned. “You know, Pepper,” he said, his voice low as he watched Darcy turn and vanish into the pantry after something, “ordinarily I wouldn't count my chickens before they hatch, but in this case, I feel pretty safe making a prediction.”

Pepper, her lips twitching like she already knew what he was going to say, tilted her head anyway, letting him say it. “What would that be?”

He picked up his fork again. “One day very, very soon, I'm gonna bond that girl,” he said simply.

Pepper laughed softly, standing and picking up her empty plate. “Of that, my dear Captain, I have no doubt.” She carried her plate into the kitchen, thanked Bucky and Darcy for breakfast, and headed to the elevator on her way to her office.

Darcy came and collected Jane's empty plate, depositing the bowl of bacon on the table in front of Steve as she did so. He reached out to capture her hand as she made to withdraw; she froze, and he gave her a careful, gentle smile. “Good morning,” he murmured, holding onto her with just the gentle press of his fingers against hers.

“Good morning,” she said back, her cheeks going pink. “I'm really looking forward to the MoMA today.”

“So am I,” he assured her. He brought her fingers to his lips, pressing a gentle kiss there, and then he turned her hand just a bit, nosing against her palm. As scent-searches went, it was the least invasive that he could think of. It still sent a shiver through her body, but when he looked up at her, he could see that the shiver was a good response and that she was nowhere near as afraid as she had been before.

He grinned, releasing her hand, and picked up a strip of bacon. “I think,” he said to her, giving her a broad wink, “that we're going to have a very,  _ very _ good time.”

If possible, she blushed even brighter.


	4. Chapter 4

Their museum trip was an unqualified success. Steve found himself in the somewhat amusingly nostalgic position of hanging back and watching as Bucky turned on all of his charm, slinging his arm around Darcy's shoulders and guiding her through the museum, his head bent against hers as they passed from exhibit to exhibit. Steve mostly watched them, included occasionally but staying largely at the fringes. This was, at its core, Bucky looking out for Steve, as he always did - smoothing the path between Alpha and Omega and making it easier for the two of them to connect.

Steve discovered a few things over the course of that afternoon. He learned quickly that Darcy was far less likely to shy away from him if Bucky had his arm wrapped around her; he supposed that she felt safer that way. He learned that Bucky was even better at flirting now than he had been before, a thing which Steve would previously have sworn was impossible. And he learned that when he let Darcy see inside of him - see sides of him that he didn't usually show to people - she got fascinated with him almost in spite of herself.

It happened by accident, as the three of them were standing in a huge, white room studying an installation piece. The artist was an up-and-coming Omega from Romania who was getting famous for her graphic and thought-provoking depictions of pack dynamics. The particular sculpture in this installation was made of wood, and according to the brochure had been carved painstakingly over the course of almost two years. The three of them found themselves in the installation room alone, so Steve left their side to prowl his way around the sculpture, studying it.

Bucky nudged Darcy. “He's got his art face on,” he murmured.

She raised an eyebrow back at him. “What do you mean?”

“Look at his face. Steve, man. I can draw, and I'm pretty good at it. But Steve? Steve shoulda been an artist. This oughta be his stuff hangin' in this museum.” He shook his head. “That guy makes gorgeous stuff.”

“He sculpts?” Darcy asked, curious.

Bucky nodded. “Sculpts, draws, paints, throws fruit at canvases. You name it, Steve can do it.”

“Huh.” She turned to watch Steve as he studied the installation, his eyes moving rapidly in his otherwise still face, taking in the details of the forms and letting them fill his mind. “I didn't know that.”

Bucky smirked. “You'd know if you ever came to our place instead of me always comin' to yours,” he said. “His stuff's all over.”

Darcy frowned. “Bucky, you know why -”

He cut her off with a brush of his nose to her earlobe. “I know, kitten,” he assured her. “I'm just sayin'. You come over, I'll show you some of his work. That's all.”

She nodded, turning her attention to the Alpha as he prowled his way back toward them. She stepped out from under Bucky's arm, moving slowly in Steve's direction. “So, what do you think?” she asked.

Steve glanced up at her and smiled, and she felt something inside herself go very warm at the sight. “I love it,” he said frankly. He reached out, taking her hand, and drew her to his side. “There's so much detail, and everything I look at tells me more about what she's thinking.” He pointed at the outermost layer of the piece, which was made up of three androgynous human figures who stood in a rough circle, their backs to one another and arms linked together, their hips touching. About mid-thigh, the column of fleshy legs gave way to the rough-barked trunk of an oak tree. Though genderless, they were not without dynamic; their half-swollen knots gave them all away as Alphas. “Look at this one's face,” Steve said, pointing at one of the three, whose teeth were bared in a snarl. “This artist is an Omega; how can she even know how that feels?”

She glanced up at him. “We get protective instincts, too,” she pointed out.

“I know,” he said, nodding, “but I've never seen an Omega look like that, even when the young were threatened. And there was a lot of that going on in the war.” He shook his head. “There's protective instinct, and then there's... there's something else. I don't know how to describe it; words have never been my thing.” He paused, studying that fierce expression, and when he spoke again, his voice was low and vibrant. “You get this feeling with pack,” he said. “Way down deep inside. Like everything that's  _ right  _ and  _ good _ in the world is there. And it's more than family, it's more than home.”

“It's like part of yourself,” Darcy agreed. She swallowed hard. “Like that place where you fit, where everything is... is safe, and you can trust.”

“And it's precious,” Steve added. He turned, facing her fully, and reached up to cup her jaw, his thumb tracing across her cheekbone. “It's so precious, and... and I don't know how it is for you, but for me... for an Alpha... it's like this thing inside my chest, and it burns all the time, because it's my job to  _ protect _ . It's my job to keep the pack safe, to... to keep my Beta safe, and...” He trailed off for a moment, but the words  _ my Omega _ hung in the air between them. Finally, he shook his head, just a little. “And when I look at that,” he said, gesturing to the Alpha in the sculpture, “that's what I think of. I think of that burn inside of me that says  _ this is my pack and I would give my life to keep them safe _ .”

She stared up at him for a long time, her eyes huge and her lips parted in surprise. He let her, turning his attention back to the installation. Across the curves of the wood, he could see Bucky across the room, leaning against the wall, watching them with a faint smirk on his face. Steve ignored the expression, focusing instead on the feel of Darcy's fingers as she slid her hand into his, and the way she held his hand through the rest of the museum and, for once,  _ Bucky _ was the one who trailed along behind.

The next few weeks were a study in that same delicious torture for Steve. He and Bucky continued their slow, subtle campaign for Darcy's affection, and she began to flower under their combined attention, showing them more of the fire and grit that hid beneath the veneer of the shy, unsure Omega. The more Bucky played with her, the more she opened up; the more Steve showed her of his own hidden nature, the more she blossomed. Steve's prediction that he would one day bond with Darcy was looking ever more like a certainty; Bucky reported one night, in the privacy of their bedroom, that Stark had started taking bets on when it would happen. Steve was less than amused, but Bucky assured him that Darcy didn't know about it. “I thought about throwin' in,” he admitted. “The pot's pretty sweet. But I figured you'd say it wasn't fair, so I didn't.”

Steve just rolled his eyes.

Three months to the day after that first, terrifying conversation on the landing pad, he and Darcy chanced to be alone in the common room. Neither of them was watching the television; it was on for background noise while she read a book in the window seat and he sat on the sofa and sketched her. A news program came on, the commentator droning about some scandal, and then a guest began talking about public welfare programs.

The scratching of Steve's pencil on the paper slowed to a stop and Darcy glanced up to see him staring at the screen, his brow furrowed. She turned her attention to the screen and discovered that the commentator's guest was apparently adamantly opposed to a program that would grant additional health care benefits to the very poorest of Americans. Steve was frowning at him.

“What's wrong?” Darcy asked, setting her book aside.

He glanced over at her. “These people make me so angry,” he said, gesturing at the screen. “How can they sit there and just blithely deny the right of millions of people to go to the doctor when they're sick?  _ So what _ if it causes taxes to go up?  _ So what _ if the super-rich are asked to give a little bit more so that everyone else can have a little bit more? Look around!” He gestured at the room where they were sitting. “People like Stark - people like  _ us _ \- can afford to pay a little bit extra to make sure that people  _ everywhere _ can be fed and housed and healthy. But this guy's talking like it's some kind of a burden on him  _ personally _ to pay an extra few bucks a year in taxes so poor kids in Harlem or Detroit or wherever can get their lungs listened to.” He gritted his teeth, looking up at her as she came to sit beside him. “You know,” he said, a little more softly, “if Mr. Roosevelt had included a program like that in his New Deal, my Ma might not have died of TB.”

Darcy studied his face for a long moment. Then, wordlessly, she reached out and took his right hand. She shook her hair back from her shoulders, baring her throat, and she lifted his wrist to the pulse point on the left side of her neck.

He sat very still for a long moment, staring at her, feeling his heart pounding in his chest. And then he cupped his hand around the back of her neck, and her hands fell into her lap, her eyes fluttering closed. “Darce,” he whispered, his voice harsh and low. “Are you sure?”

“I'm sure,” she murmured. “I've been close to sure for awhile, but that... that convinced me.”

He raised an eyebrow, slightly amused. “Me going on a political rant convinced you?”

She shook her head, opening her eyes again and staring into his. “Your compassion,” she said softly. “You don't just think it's the right thing to do or some kind of abstract thing. You actually  _ care _ about people and whether or not they get what they need.” She swallowed hard; he felt the movement under his hand. “Your heart convinced me.”

That was all he needed; he pulled her close to him, leaning down. His nose nuzzled against her jawline and he took a deep breath of her delicious scent. Then he opened his mouth, his tongue sliding out against the right side of her neck. She whined low in her throat, her head falling back even farther and her body going limp as she submitted to him. He nosed his way a little farther down that silky column until his lips rested against the side of her carotid artery, and then he bit.

She arched in his grip, whining even louder, but he didn't let go, carefully gauging the strength of his claiming-bite. When he released her, the impression of his teeth on her throat was unmistakable, deep red already. By dinnertime it would be dark purple and everyone would be able to see it; everyone would know that she was his.

He let her go then, smoothing her hair back and giving her a sweet smile. “My Darcy,” he murmured against her temple, pressing a kiss to the sweat-damp skin there.

“Alpha,” she whined, shivering. 

He chuckled, stroking her cheek with his thumb for a moment. Then he urged her back to the window, reaching for his sketch pad once more. She looked confused; he realized that she had been expecting him to take her back to his den and bond her right then. He shook his head. “We're going to do this properly,” he said, giving her a reassuring smile. “You deserve that. Patience, Omega. It won't be long.”

The next day, Steve went on an errand alone. He rarely did that; he was a social person at heart, so if he went anywhere, he usually tried to take Bucky - or, these days, Darcy. But on that particular day, Steve went by himself. Pepper, upon seeing the claiming mark on Darcy's throat, had gotten him an appointment at a boutique at the corner of Madison and Thirty-Third Street, and neither of them would have been permitted inside.

The sign above the door was a simple lowercase α, classic and understated. He appreciated that. It also smacked of prestige; he didn't care so much about that, but he also figured that he might as well use the perks he was offered. A tiny Omega in a suit and a diamond-studded collar waited beside the door; when he started toward it, the little man reached out, pulling it open and giving him a formal bow as he entered.

He paused just inside the doorway and took a look around. It was impossibly luxe, and  _ old _ luxe at that, in the style of the Roaring Twenties. A huge crystal chandelier lit the place, which was all marble and gold trim and thick white carpeting. In his jeans and button-down, he felt a little under-dressed, especially when he was approached by a tall Alpha female in a three-piece suit. “Good afternoon,” she greeted him. “How may we help you?”

“Steve Rogers,” he introduced himself. “I have an appointment.”

Her demeanor brightened considerably. “Of course, Captain. Please, do come in and make yourself comfortable. I'm Jessica.”

Steve did so, mentally noting that it was really very helpful sometimes to have Pepper Potts in one's pack. The saleswoman brought him to a chaise and bade him be seated, then seated herself in a nearby chair. She crossed her legs primly and leaned forward. “Tell me what it is that you need, Captain,” she said, “and I will make it happen.”

Steve took a deep breath. “I'm... getting ready to bond an Omega,” he explained, feeling his cheeks warm as he did so. It was very private, almost intimate, to discuss such matters outside of one's pack - which was why Betas and Omegas were not permitted to enter the shop. Alphas could speak this way to stranger Alphas; to have such intimacy with a stranger of a different dynamic would be unthinkable, even in these forward times. “I have a Beta already, and so I want...” He trailed off, waving an expressive hand.

“Of course,” Jessica said. “You want to commemorate such a joyous occasion, and you want to present them both with visible tokens of your affection and the bond between the three of you.”

It was remarkable, Steve thought, how  _ she _ could say that with a perfectly straight face, but if  _ he _ so much as tried, he'd go bright red and stammer all over himself. “Yes,” he said, somewhat relieved. “That's it exactly.”

Jessica smiled. “Then let's get started, shall we?”

An hour later, more than pleased with his order and assured that it would be ready for him within five days, Steve left the boutique with a smile on his face. He was considerably lighter in the wallet, but he didn't care; he'd have paid the same amount twice over again for what he was getting, and it wasn't like he couldn't afford it. He headed back to the tower, feeling quite self-satisfied.

When he arrived home, he was shocked to find that his door - the one that had been clearly marked  _ Rogers and Barnes _ \- was blank. Confused, he opened the door and peered inside, only to find the apartment totally empty. It hadn't been cleaned yet; it still smelled of him and Bucky, rather than of cleaning products and scent-eraser. But it was clearly vacant. He came out into the hallway, confused, just about the time Darcy came around the corner. She was dressed in jeans and a long, loose top, her hair pulled back at the nape of her neck, the claiming mark dark and beautiful on the side of her throat. 

“Steve!” she exclaimed, smiling broadly. “There you are. I  _ told _ Bucky I smelled you.” She reached out to take his hand. “Come see.”

He leaned in and kissed her. “What am I coming to see?” he asked, following along patiently.

“Tony made us a present.”

He winced. “Do I want to know?”

She laughed. “It's a good present. You're going to love it.”

The apartments on the residential floor all lined the outside of the building; the inside space was where the Avengers' common areas were located: the media center, the kitchen, the common dining area, and so forth. The apartments essentially made a horseshoe with the elevator shaft and the stairwell in what would be the horseshoe's open section. Darcy led Steve around the common area to the other side of the horseshoe, where a number of empty apartments waited for new people who might join their pack in the future. The first door was already labeled  _ Wilson _ , because Sam had been promised a place once he was finished with his own business in Washington. Farther down the hall, another door that had been blank was no longer; the label on it now read  _ Rogers-Barnes-Lewis _ , the names all lined up one beneath the next with discreet dashes between each one. 

Darcy reached for the door handle, but it opened from the inside. Bucky stood there in khaki shorts and a black tee shirt, grinning broadly at them both. “Steve!” he exclaimed. “Come inside!”

Steve did, looking around in surprise. The layout of the apartment was basically the same as the one they had been in, but it was larger - much larger. To the left of the open-plan living area was the kitchen, but instead of only a counter with stools, this kitchen also had space for a table and six chairs. To the right, where the master bedroom had been in the previous apartment, there was an art studio; he could see the edge of his easel through the doorway, which was tucked behind a spiral staircase that led up to a loft.

Tony was standing at the top of the stairs, grinning his very special Manic Pixie grin. “Check it out, Cap,” he said, waving his arms like a game show hostess. “Thought you might be able to use the extra space.”

Steve obligingly came up the stairs, leaving Bucky and Darcy down below to watch. As he neared the loft level, Steve stopped in his tracks, looking around. “Holy hell, Tony,” he said softly. “How many bedrooms are in this place?”

“Five,” Tony replied easily. “Three and a half baths. The master has an en suite, of course, and the other four have jack-and-jills.”

“Tony,” Steve said, his voice low. “This is... this is too much. We don't need all this space; it's not like we're each going to want our own bedroom.”

“Well, no, of course not,” Tony said. “But you'll need room for the pups.”

Steve went very still for a moment, then shook his head. He started to say something else, but was interrupted by a tiny sound of distress from below. He looked down and felt his jaw drop slightly at the sight of Darcy, her fists clenched in the material of Bucky's T-shirt. Her head was bowed against Bucky's shoulder and his human hand was buried in her hair, holding her there. His metal hand was gripping her waist, and he was glaring very hard at Steve, his mouth a thin line in his face.

Steve liked to think that he was a fairly intelligent guy. He shut up immediately. Then he looked back up at Tony. “Thank you,” he said simply, turning to go back down the stairs.

Tony also considered himself pretty intelligent. “Don't mention it,” he said. “Really. Don't. You know that kind of thing gives me hives.” He gave Steve a broad grin and scuttled down the stairs as well, heading for the door and giving Bucky a sympathetic look as he passed.

When the door closed behind Tony, there was a terrible silence in the room. Steve stood very still, unsure what to do. Then, in a sudden flurry of movement, Darcy forcibly pushed herself away from Bucky. Turning her back to both of them, she strode into the kitchen. She snatched open the pantry door and began organizing the canned goods.

Bucky glared at Steve, jerking his head toward the art room. Once they were both inside, he spun on his Alpha, keeping his voice low so it wouldn't carry into the kitchen. “What. The. Hell.”

Steve held out his hands, palm up. “I didn't know!” he exclaimed, fighting to keep his own voice low. “I didn't think she wanted kids!”

“You didn't even  _ ask _ her? You idiot!” Bucky clapped both his hands on the top of his head, turning away and pacing toward the corner. He turned back to Steve, hands waving in frustration. “For that matter, you didn't even ask  _ me _ ! Do you  _ honestly _ think I'd have let Stark move us into a  _ five-bedroom place _ if I didn't think there might be a  _ need _ for it at some point in the future?”

Steve stared at Bucky, his mind reeling. “Buck,” he said softly. “You want kids?”

“Hell yeah, I want kids!” Bucky exclaimed. “I've always wanted kids! You know that, Steve!” He ran his metal hand through his hair, looking out the window for a long minute, breathing deeply. Then he turned back to his Alpha, and his expression had shifted; it had gone wary in a way that threatened to break Steve's heart. “Alpha,” he said softly, “do... you not want children?”

Steve felt the air go out of him. He sat down hard on the stool in front of the drafting table. “To tell you the truth, Buck, I never thought about it. Not since...” He shook his head. “I always thought I did, but then the war, and the ice, and then  _ you _ and...” He swallowed hard. “I think I just... figured they'd be one of those things that weren't gonna happen, and I made my peace with that.”

Bucky stared at him for a long moment, mouth slightly open. Then he shoved his hands into his pockets, his shoulders slumping. “Well,” he said softly. “I guess that... that answers that question.” He paused, looking away, and cleared his throat. “It shouldn't be too much work to move us back, I guess. Since we won't be needing the extra rooms.” He closed his eyes, his expression pained, but when he opened them again, his face went blank and stony. “Guess it's a good thing we hadn't had time to do anything other than stack boxes upstairs.”

He turned and left the room, leaving behind the thick smell of hurt. Steve slumped forward, his elbows on the table and his face in his hands. His mind raced. He had honestly not thought about the issue of children in a very long time. Since the war, since Bucky's fall from the train, since his own crash into the ice... Children had seemed like an unattainable dream. Something for other people to have, a symbol of hope for the future, but not in his own future. It hadn't occurred to him that his future might have changed.

Steve closed his eyes, imagining Darcy pregnant, swollen, complaining cheerfully that she was as big as a house; he imagined Darcy holding his baby,  _ Bucky _ holding his baby, all three of them surrounded by fat, happy, healthy children who shrieked and played and called them Mama and Daddy and Papa. He imagined tucking little ones into bed, telling them stories, listening to Darcy or Bucky sing them to sleep. 

From the kitchen, he heard Bucky's voice, a low murmur too soft for him to make out the words. He heard a sharp sob from Darcy, and Bucky trying to soothe her. And he realized quite suddenly that he was perhaps not as intelligent as he'd hoped. In a moment of clarity, he thought to himself that he might, in fact, be a very stupid man.

He stood up and walked out into the living room. Bucky and Darcy were in the kitchen, slowly transferring cans from the pantry back into the moving boxes. Steve crossed the living room in a few long strides, stepping into the kitchen. They both looked up at him, and for a moment as he took in the misery on Bucky's face and the tears on Darcy's, he felt very small. Then he said, “Stop.”

He'd unintentionally used his Alpha-voice; cans fell from both of their suddenly-nerveless fingers, hitting the floor with twin thuds. They stared at him. He cleared his throat. “It's not that I don't  _ want _ kids,” he said carefully. “I just hadn't  _ thought _ about it.”

Bucky and Darcy exchanged glances, and Bucky's voice wavered just a little when he said, “So... have you thought about it?”

Steve nodded once. “I've thought about it,” he said. And then he smiled slightly. “Have you two got a suggestion about which room we should use for the nursery?”


	5. Chapter 5

Things were tense for a few days after the move, especially at night. Tony's cadre of movers had brought Darcy's things as well as Steve and Bucky's, so they were now officially living together, but Steve wanted to do the thing properly, with a ceremony and all. So when it came time for bed, they both kissed her warmly, and Steve and Bucky went into the master bedroom while Darcy went into the spare bedroom that was the farthest away from them.

Though he went to sleep nightly with his Beta curled up next to him, Steve woke in the middle of the third night alone in the bed. This was rare enough that it concerned him, especially since there was no light from the en suite bathroom, so he got out of bed and went looking. When he stepped out into the upstairs hall and looked across the loft, he saw Darcy's bedroom door standing open, a dim light shining from inside. He made his way quietly across the wood floor.

Through the door, he could see them lying together on Darcy's bed. They were both fully clothed - not that he would have really cared, anyway, because  _ come on _ \- but they were holding each other tightly, and he could hear a slight hiccup in Darcy's voice that told him she'd been crying. He held very still, listening, and not feeling even a little bad about it. He needed to know where her head was at, and after his blunder regarding the idea of future children, she'd gotten wary around him again. Not as much as she had been at first, thank all the gods, but there was a level of caution about her that almost tasted like broken trust. It hurt.

Tonight, though, miracle of miracles, she wasn't crying about some damn fool thing he'd said or done. He heard Bucky say, “Are you sure, Doll?” Her answer made Steve's stomach clench.

“I'm sure,” she said. “They don't know where I am; haven't since I got the internship with Jane. I didn't tell them I had it; I just... went. And like... part of me is pretty sure they don't care, but I don't want to risk it, because what if my f-father said no?”

“You know Steve'd fight for you,” Bucky said, his hand combing through Darcy's hair soothingly. “He wouldn't let you go.”

“I don't want to risk it,” she said again, her voice watery but firm. “I don't want them knowing about it until after it's over. Once he can't do anything about it, then... I dunno, we can send them an announcement or something.”

Bucky chuckled softly. “Dear Mr. Lewis, this letter is to inform you that your daughter Darcy, designation Omega, has been claimed and bonded by Captain America. Congratulations and gifts are unnecessary. We just thought you'd like to know. Signed, Captain America (Steve Rogers, designation Alpha) and the Winter Soldier (James Barnes, designation Beta).”

Darcy choked, laughing. “Oh, gods. Oh, that would be  _ hilarious _ .”

Bucky grinned, rubbing her back. “We could... go see them. If you wanted to. I mean... your mom, right? And your sisters and all?”

“Maybe. I don't know.” Darcy sighed. “Maybe I'll call, after. At least that way if it gets ugly, I can just hang up and be done with it.”

“That's a good idea,” Bucky said softly.

They were silent for a long time after that, before Darcy spoke again, raising her voice just a little. “You know we can smell you out there, right?” she said. “You're not stealthy at all.”

“I know,” Steve replied. “I just didn't want to interrupt.”

“You may as well come in,” Darcy said.

Steve did, pushing the door open and stepping into the room. Darcy's things were strewn around in absolutely no semblance of order; she hadn't bothered, since she would be moving into the master bedroom in just a few days. He stepped over a pair of shoes and made his way to the opposite side of the bed, laying down behind Darcy and tucking his nose behind her ear, breathing deeply of her scent.

She took his hand when his arm came to wrap around her, lifting it to her mouth, and lipped at his wrist. “I'm sorry I've been so weird the last few days,” she said softly.

“It isn't your fault,” he assured her, kissing the back of her neck. “Or at least, it isn't  _ all _ your fault. We should've talked about things like that ages ago. I shouldn't have assumed that just because you had a rough childhood, you wouldn't want kids of your own.”

Darcy smiled slightly. “It's not like I gave much indication,” she admitted. “Bucky pointed out that one of the things I said when he first approached me was that I didn't want to become an incubator. And I  _ don't _ ,” she added, firmly. “But there's a difference.”

“There's a huge difference,” Steve acknowledged. “And we know how important your work is. Not just to you, but to Jane, and the team, and to the world, whether they know it or not. Nobody's going to stop you from doing it, if it's what you want.”

Darcy nodded. “Thank you,” she said softly.

Steve lifted his hand then, cupping Bucky's face, his fingers sliding into the Beta's hair. “I haven't thanked you enough,” he said.

Bucky's eyebrows rose. “For what?”

“For everything you do for us,” Steve said. “This wouldn't work without you here; you steady us both and help us connect, and if it wasn't for you, we wouldn't be here right now.”

Darcy murmured something soft in agreement, her lips finding Bucky's, and Steve watched as the two of them sank into a decadent kiss, their scents intertwining and rising up to wrap around his brain and slide inside his heart. He pressed his lips to the juncture of Darcy's neck and shoulder, tucked his knees up behind hers, and wrapped his arm around them both, pulling them as close to him as he could. This was peace, he thought as he slowly sank into sleep, half-listening to the two of them exchange soft words of love. This was home.

He got a call the next morning from the little boutique; the pieces he'd ordered were ready a day early, and they would very much appreciate if he would come and look at them and make sure that they met his standards. He agreed, grinning broadly, and he left Darcy and Bucky at the tower, still organizing things in the new space, to head down Madison Avenue.

He felt like he had a stupid smile plastered to his face the whole way there; the sun was shining and birds were singing and everything was absolutely perfect, and he didn't even care what anyone thought if they should happen to see him looking like a complete meatball. He grinned anyway, and was both surprised and gratified to see how many people actually smiled back. When he arrived at the boutique, the same little Omega held the door for him, and he smiled and murmured his thanks as he entered the building.

Jessica came out of the back room, saw him, and smiled broadly. “Captain Rogers! Excellent. Please have a seat; let me grab your pieces.” She disappeared again as he seated himself on the chaise, and when she returned, she had a wide velvet-covered box in her hands. Another Alpha brought a low pedestal table, and Jessica placed the box on the table, opening it with a bit of a flourish.

Steve leaned forward, smiled even more broadly, and picked up one of the wristbands, lifting it up so that he could see it better in the light. It was perfect. It was black titanium; nearly an inch wide; masculine, but delicate enough for a Beta while still being durable enough to wear even in the field. The clasp was the same dark-colored metal, but fashioned after his shield: three concentric circles surrounding the center ring that held the five-pointed star. His symbol, to show the world at a glance that Bucky was  _ his _ . 

He nodded, placing the wristband back in the box, and then with both hands he lifted up the collar. Of the pieces, the collar had been far more difficult to design than the wristbands. Bucky had been wearing bands for Steve since he was seventeen, different bands of different materials at different times. Steve had known that he would wear the titanium bands as proudly as he had worn the cheap leather ones that Steve had made out of an old belt in 1934. But Darcy was different.

Darcy had baggage. Darcy had a history with the traditional collar that had nothing to do with Steve or Bucky, and that would color how she viewed whatever piece Steve placed around her neck. A collar that was to large, too visible, too tight, or wrong in a variety of other ways could negatively affect how Darcy felt about the bonding, and he wanted to avoid that outcome at all costs. He had explained this to Jessica, but of course designing claim-jewelry was her business, and she had known exactly how to help him.

Darcy's collar was platinum, and rather than being a stiff ring of metal, it was a loose collection of delicately-interlocked links that laid gently on the collarbone, much like an ordinary necklace. The difference, of course, was that it clasped on as a collar would. But Steve had even put his own personal touch on that. Rather than a standard buckle or the currently-fashionable padlock, the clasp of Darcy's collar was fashioned after Steve's shield, just like Bucky's wristbands. The only difference was that the star in the center of the silver shield on the collar was a perfect, five-pointed Rising Star-cut diamond.

He laid the collar gently back down on the velvet and looked up at Jessica, who had a slight smile on her face as she waited for his verdict. “It's perfect,” he said simply.

“Wonderful,” Jessica said, her smile spreading into a full-fledged grin. “Shall we wrap it up, then?”

He nodded once. “Yes, please.” Then he tapped on his chin, thinking. “You know,” he said, his eyes tracking toward a certain display on one wall, “there is one other thing that I think I need.”

Jessica's gaze tracked his, and she smiled gently. “I might have known you'd be a traditionalist, Captain.”

He chuckled. “In a lot of ways, very much so,” he admitted. “So, let's have a look, shall we?”

They had the ceremony three days later, on the thirtieth-floor garden terrace. The entire pack assembled for it; even Sam made the trip up from Washington. They had invited a few guests as well: some college friends of Darcy's, who now lived in the city; Professor Xavier, Scott Summers and Emma Frost came in from Westchester; Reed and Sue Richards, Johnny Storm, and Ben Grimm also came.

The wedding was fairly informal. The witnesses formed a semicircle on the terrace around a simple stone pedestal. Steve, dressed in traditional wedding garb of unbleached linen pants and shirt, walked to the center, and placed the box of claiming-jewelry on the pedestal, flipping it open. “Where is my Beta?” he said.

“Here,” said Bucky, stepping between Pepper and Reed Richards. He wore the linen pants only, and the sunlight gleamed off his metal arm. “Have you come to claim me?”

“I have,” Steve said. “Come to me.”

Grinning broadly, Bucky came, and he held out his hands, fists clenched. Steve took out the wristbands, one at a time, clasping them around Bucky's wrists. “By these tokens, I claim you as mine.”

“I submit to your claim,” Bucky said, and Steve caught him around the back of the neck, pulling him in for a long, hard kiss. Someone wolf-whistled - probably either Tony or Johnny. When Steve released Bucky, the Beta staggered just a little bit, drawing a soft chuckle from the watchers. Then, grinning broadly, he took up his traditional position, a step behind Steve and just to his right.

Steve cleared his throat. Then he looked up at the assembled witnesses. “Where is my Omega?” he said.

“Here,” Darcy said, her voice high and clear in the afternoon sun. She slipped through the circle between Jane and Thor, dressed in a loincloth and bandeau of the same unbleached linen. Her hair was unbound, falling down around her shoulders, and she shook it back so that the claiming-bite was visible on her neck, still deep purple but beginning to fade. She met his eyes, unflinching. “Have you come to claim me?”

“I have,” Steve said again, feeling his voice go thick. He swallowed hard. “Come to me.”

She came, silent on her bare feet, and went to her knees before him, crossing her wrists behind her back and baring her throat. Steve lifted the collar out of the box and took a knee in front of her, sliding the collar under her hair and clasping it at the base of her neck, the little shield nestling in the hollow there. “By this token,” he said, “I claim you as mine.”

“I submit to your claim,” Darcy said, her voice only shaking a little bit. Steve drew her to him, and her eyes fluttered shut as he kissed her, slowly and gently. 

When he let her go, he stood and took a step back. His eyes swept across the row of witnesses. “You have heard my claim, and witnessed their submission,” he said. “Will you recognize my mates?”

“We will,” they all agreed.

Bruce stepped forward then, holding another small box. He handed this to Darcy, then stepped back into the circle. Darcy opened the box, and Bucky stepped forward, taking a knee beside her.

Inside the box were two thin rings; the platinum one engraved with Darcy's name and the black titanium one with Bucky's. They took these rings in their right hands, and then Bucky took her left hand in his. “The Beta imprints upon the Alpha, “ he said, “And the Omega bonds to the Alpha.”

Darcy smiled at him. “But let this token represent the love between  _ us _ , the chains that bind us willingly to one another, and our mutual commitment to love and serve our Alpha together.”

They pressed the two rings together, twisting them just slightly so that they interlocked, making one single ring just the right size for an Alpha. Together they lifted the ring to Steve, and he held out his left hand, allowing them to slide it onto his finger. He turned his hand over then, presenting his wrist, and both of them rose up to lick him there, taking his scent and giving him theirs. When they released him, the audience applauded, and they all smiled broadly at one another. It was done.

After that, there was the usual party: hors d'oeuvres, cake, dancing, laughter, toasts to the happy triad. None of the three of them would be able to recall it in any detail later, not that anyone could blame them. They spent most of the party cuddled together on a love seat, Darcy curled in Steve's lap and Bucky actually sitting on the back of the love seat, his legs on either side of Steve's body and his fingers occasionally combing through Steve's hair.

They didn't speak much, all of them content with just being together and formally joined. Still, Darcy looked up at Steve at one point during the party and murmured, “Was it as nice as the first one?”

Steve looked down at her, his brow furrowed in confusion. “What first one?”

“The first ceremony,” she clarified. “When you imprinted Bucky.”

Bucky chuckled, leaning down to ruffle her hair gently. “We didn't have a ceremony, Doll.”

She blinked, staring up at them both in surprise. “What?”

Steve shook his head. “I don't remember wanting one, and we couldn't have afforded one even if we did. It was 1934; we had all we could do to keep food on the table.” He reached up, stroking Bucky's cheek with his fingertips. “So when Bucky imprinted - which, I'm just going to say this, was one hell of a surprise - ” he paused while Bucky choked out a laugh, and continued, “we just sort of acknowledged it and went on. I managed to get my hands on an old belt, and I made a set of wristbands out of it just so people would stop messing with him in the streets, and that was it.”

“Why was it such a surprise, though?” Darcy wondered. “I mean, you guys knew each other since you were kids.”

“That's part of why it was such a surprise,” Steve admitted. “You've seen the pictures of me from before the serum.”

“Sure, all skinny and hipster.” She grinned at him. “You were adorable.”

He laughed. “Well, skinny and nerdy is kind of in these days, but not back then. Think about who the big movie stars were: Clark Gable, Bogey, Cary Grant. They might not have been huge and muscled, like that German guy from the  _ Terminator _ movies, but they were still pretty built, and I didn't fit that mold.”

“And I didn't care,” Bucky interjected. “Because like you say, doll, I knew him since we were kids. I knew him inside and out, and I was a lot like you - kinda skittish and kinda nervous. I didn't want some big, stupid Clark Gable type that was nice to look at but might have a mean temper and a quick left hook. I wanted Steve.”

Steve blushed cutely, and Darcy couldn't resist giving him a soft kiss on the side of his neck. He stroked her hair back and said, “So there we were. I was sixteen, and Bucky was seventeen, and he was starting to get harassed on the streets. You know how it is, even now, and Red Hook was pretty rough back then. I kept telling him, Bucky, you need to find yourself a nice Alpha that can take care of you, give you somethin' better than some crappy tenement that leaks in the winter.”

Bucky grinned. “And I got tired of hearin' him say it.”

“So I'm standin' at the kitchen counter one night, peelin' potatoes, and I'm naggin' at him to get out there and find himself an Alpha before somethin' bad happens to him, and I hear this thump, and he whines. And I think,  _ shit, he's hurt himself or somethin' _ , so I turn around, and the idiot's on his knees with his shirt off and his wrists out.”

Bucky grinned smugly. “Worked, didn't it?”

Steve reached up and pulled Bucky's head down for a kiss. “Yeah, you jerk. It worked.”

With the setting of the sun, Steve rose to his feet. The party slowed down long enough for everyone to watch as Bucky took his place behind his Alpha and to the right, and Darcy took her place behind her Alpha and to the left. The guests formed up a double line, and Steve led his mates past all of their well-wishers and into the building. The party started up again as they left, and (knowing Tony) would probably continue through most of the night; for them, though, it was time for something else.

They were silent on the elevator ride up to their floor, and as they passed through the empty common areas and finally into their apartment. Steve shut the door behind them and locked it, then turned to look at his Beta and his Omega. Bucky was standing in the center of the living room, his hands behind his back; Darcy was kneeling at his feet, her hands clasped at the back of her neck.

Steve swallowed hard.

Bucky's hands moved, coming to cup the back of Darcy's head with exquisite gentleness, tilting her backward and exposing her neck, her soft belly, and the clean, gorgeous lines of her body. “Alpha,” he said softly, “will you make of this Omega your mate, your help, and your comfort, and the bearer of your young?”

Steve shivered hard, the ceremonial words awakening something dark and feral inside him. “Is it your will that I do this, Beta, and accept this Omega into our home and the warmth of our hearth?”

Bucky smiled. “It is.”

He moved to stand in front of them, looking down at Darcy. “Is it your will, Omega, that you come into this home, to be my mate and my help, my comfort and the bearer of my young?”

Darcy swallowed hard. “It is,” she whispered, staring back at him with eyes blown dark.

“Then take my bond,” Steve said, kneeling in front of her. He bit her twice - first on the neck, and then again on her belly, neither hard enough to mark - and then his hands came up to the edge of her loincloth and tugged. The linen parted with a soft ripping sound, falling away from her hips even as Bucky knelt behind her, his hands sliding the bandeau off her chest and tossing it away. 

Bucky held her while Steve tasted her, his mouth traveling all over her body, finding the places where her scent was strongest and taking it into himself, licking and sucking and making her scent a part of him and his scent a part of her. When he finally dropped onto his stomach and dipped his head between her legs, he found her slick with desire to the middle of her thighs, and he couldn't help himself; he drew his tongue across that soft flesh, groaning at the sound of her whimper. “Alpha,” she moaned, twisting as the tip of his tongue flicked against her clit. “Please, Alpha,  _ please _ !”

Chuckling, he rose back up to his knees and captured her lips. There would be time and more than time to make her whine and buck and mewl and cry. Right now, she needed the bond. He pressed her back to lean against Bucky, and her arms came up to wrap around the Beta's neck. Bucky's hands spanned her ribcage, holding her steady and showcasing her beautiful breasts. Steve took a moment to press a kiss to each soft globe, and then he reached down, adjusting her stance, pressing her knees a bit farther apart.

He pushed the linen pants down off his hips, his cock springing out, huge and red, the knot half-inflated already. He gripped his shaft and gave himself a cursory pull, then shifted forward. The head brushed against the slick flesh of her cunt. She whined, her hips jerking, and he groaned softly, setting his lips against the mark on her throat and slowly, slowly pushing inside of her.

Her arms tightened around Bucky's head and neck, her body arching as Steve invaded her, and he closed his eyes, drowning in the smell and feel and taste of her. And then he started to move, slow thrusts that pushed his knot against her body, feeling the way she shifted and opened for him, the way her flesh stretched around him, the way she shivered and whimpered and writhed for him. His hand dropped down between their bodies, the backs of his fingers rubbing against her clit, and she arched, whining.

Her body shuddered hard, completely without warning, but he recognized it for what it was and he thrust in, hard and deep. She opened beneath him, crying out wordlessly as her body accepted his knot, and then she came, screaming, locking down around him. His knot inflated and he thrust against the resistance of her lock once, twice, three times before coming deep inside her, her inner muscles squeezing rhythmically, working every last drop of come from him. She jerked once, hard, and then went completely limp between the two of them, tied securely.

Steve reached up and cupped her face. “Open your eyes,” he murmured. “Look at me.”

After a moment, she did, and when his eyes met hers, they both felt the bond slot into place between them. She gasped at the sudden sensation. He laughed once, a pure and joyous sound, and then he leaned forward and he kissed her.


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just as a reminder, this chapter includes one instance of homophobic language, references to past child abuse and an instance of verbal abuse by a parent to an adult child. If that sort of thing affects you, please proceed with caution. (It's all packed together near the end. You'll probably see it coming.)

“How does it feel?”

“Hmm?”

“How does it feel?”

Darcy rolled onto her back, blinking slowly. She hadn't been asleep, exactly, but she had been dozing hard enough that it was a struggle to focus her mind. She stared up at Bucky's face for a long moment before she managed to say, “How does what feel?”

“The bond,” he clarified, one warm fingertip tracing her jawline. He was lying on his side, his head propped up on his metal arm, the sheets drawn up to his waist. His eyes followed his finger as he traced the lines of her body, learning her topography the way he might study a map. He dragged his fingernail across her collarbone and she shivered when he flicked at the tiny silver version of Steve's shield.

She stretched, tacitly inviting him to continue exploring as he would, and she considered his question. “It's... warm,” she said at last, her expression abstracting as she sought ways to put the sensation into words. Almost unconsciously, her left hand rose to press against her sternum, right between her breasts. “It's warm and soft, but at the same time it's not soft at all. It's gentle and it's calm, but at the same time, it's like that really intense feeling right before you come, like you might fly apart but it's going to be so amazing that you don't really mind.” She swallowed hard, her eyes sharpening again, coming up to meet his. “It's difficult to describe.”

His lips curled up into that sweet little smirk that she'd come to love so much. “I know what you mean,” he said, leaning down to nuzzle the side of her neck. “When I first imprinted...” He paused, his lips just brushing her skin. “Man, I was just a kid. I had no idea what I was doing. I just knew I needed him.”

She made a soft sound of encouragement, raising one hand to run through his hair as he began placing gentle kisses against her skin. He made his way down to her sternum, lavishing a long, slow kiss on the place she'd touched when describing the sensation of the bond. “It's here, isn't it?” he asked.

“Yeah,” she murmured, her fingers carding through his hair, nails scratching gently at his scalp. “You, too?”

He nodded, his eyes fluttering closed. “Me, too.”

She smiled slightly. “It's nice to have someone who understands.”

He opened one eye, glancing at her quizzically. “You don't think Jane would understand? She's a bonded Omega, too.”

“Not what I mean.” Darcy tugged at his hair gently, drawing him up to hover over her. She lifted her leg, wrapping it around his hip, and he accepted the invitation she was offering, reaching down to part her flesh gently with his fingers and slide his cock inside of her. Her eyes fluttered closed as he slipped inside, a low moan escaping from her lips. 

He lowered himself down onto his elbows, aligning their bodies so that their skins touched all along their combined length, and he rocked into her slowly, his movements gentle and achingly tender. “What did you mean?” he murmured against her ear.

Her hands clutched at his back. “I mean,” she gasped, “about  _ him _ .”

“Ah.” Bucky chuckled, rewarding her with a particularly deep thrust that made her moan and shiver. “Yeah,” he said. “It is nice to have someone who understands.” He tweaked her nipple with his right hand. “Finally.”

She laughed breathlessly, arching up into his touch. “I ca - oh, gods! - can't help it if I wasn't born earlier.”

He took her earlobe in his mouth and tugged it with his teeth. “Nah, it's for the best,” he said. “If you'd been born earlier, Stevie'd still have been in the ice and I'd have still been with the damn Russians. You came along right when you were supposed to.” He brought his mouth to hers then, sharing her breath, their lips just brushing, tongues sliding out to tease against one another as he slowly rolled his hips, drawing out their pleasure in the quiet bedroom, letting her moans and gasps and sighs dictate his pace.

A low buzz at the base of his skull caused him to raise his head and turn toward the doorway; there stood Steve, leaning casually against the door frame, his arms folded across his chest, dressed only in a pair of loose pajama pants. There was a faint smirk on his face as he watched them. Bucky returned it. “Alpha,” he murmured.

“Beta,” Steve replied, deep good humor in his voice. “I wasn't even gone that long.”

“Long enough,” Darcy managed, her fingers tightening on Bucky's shoulders. “We missed you.”

“Did you, now?” Steve asked, his smirk turning into a full-blown grin.

She gasped out a sound that might have been an affirmative. “Always miss you when you go,” she managed, her hips pushing up against Bucky's, her eyes squeezing shut as the pleasure built inside her.

Steve came to the side of the bed, reaching out to run a hand down Bucky's back. The play of the muscles beneath his fingers fascinated him, and he watched for a moment how they moved in the low light as Bucky pushed himself up onto his palms, changing the angle of his thrusts and making Darcy cry out. Then Steve dropped his hand to touch her, cupping one breast and flicking at the nipple before sliding his hand down across her sweat-dampened stomach to the place where Bucky drove into her again and again.

Steve's fingers found her clit unerringly; he ran two fingertips across it, making Darcy buck, and then settled them against it, rubbing firmly. “Let go,” he murmured, his other hand stroking her hair back from her forehead. “Let me see you come apart for him. Show me how good he is to you.”

She was crying out in earnest now, moans and grunts and deep, wordless noises that escaped from her with every inward thrust, and with Steve's fingers against her clit, it only took a moment before she did just that: she shuddered hard, her nails digging into the soft skin of Bucky's back, and she came with a hoarse cry, trembling and grasping at him. Moments later, Bucky came as well, shoving himself as deep inside of her as he could and bowing his head against her neck, his whole body giving soft jerks with each pulse of his climax until finally, with a shuddering moan, he crumpled on top of her and lay still, panting against her shoulder.

Steve, chuckling, drew his hand back, licking Darcy's slick off his fingers with soft sounds of enjoyment that made her shiver under Bucky, a soft whine escaping from the back of her throat. He gave her a spectacularly shit-eating grin, then went back to the doorway. He leaned over, and she watched him pick up a breakfast tray that she hadn't noticed before, having been a bit preoccupied with Bucky at the time.

“I brought us some food,” Steve said, rounding the bed and seating himself. Bucky, groaning softly, rolled off Darcy in the other direction, pushing her back into the middle of the bed. Steve continued, “I've heard that the bonding can be hard on Omegas, physically speaking, so if you need something, I need you to let me know. Okay?”

She nodded, blushing slightly, and he handed her a slice of apple and a piece of cheese. “Thank you, Alpha,” she murmured, taking a bite.

He leaned over and pressed a kiss to her temple, nuzzling against her. Her scent had changed, just a bit, since the bonding; that sweet vanilla now carried just a hint of musky spice, and it was delicious. His tongue escaped from his mouth, just brushing her skin, and she shivered, choking on a soft breath. He grinned. “Do you like that?” he asked, his voice a bare whisper against her ear. “Do you like how I make you feel?”

“Yes, Alpha,” she gasped.

“Good,” he murmured. “Because I want to make you feel like that every day for the rest of your life.” He drew back from her, nudging her hand. “Eat,” he said. “You're going to need your strength.” Then he picked up another apple slice and some more cheese, passing it over to Bucky. “And so are you.”

Bucky laughed. “You ain't gotta tell me twice,” he said, stuffing the apple and cheese into his mouth cheerfully.

It was standard practice for a newly bonded pair or triad to den up for a few days after their ceremony; it was widely acknowledged that this was a throwback to much earlier evolutionary times, when people lived in caves and it was sometimes necessary to defend one's chosen mate from others in the pack. Conventional wisdom in modern times held that the longer a pair or triad stayed denned up after the actual bonding or imprinting - this being, of course, a polite euphemism for indulging the biological imperative and having sex on every flat surface in the apartment and some of the merely slanted ones as well - the stronger would be the match, and thus the more solid the foundation for the rest of their lives.

Steve, Darcy, and Bucky stayed denned up for nearly eight days. They might have stayed longer, but they finally ran out of food and Darcy put her foot down about the box of powdered milk in the far back of the cupboard. So, just after noon on the eighth day, Darcy pulled on a pair of leggings and a novelty tee shirt of Bucky's, dragged her hair into some semblance of a low ponytail, and defiantly stepped out of their apartment, making her way barefoot across the common area and pulling open the refrigerator.

“Holy shit,” said a voice behind her, making her jump and spin around in shock. “Girlie,” Clint Barton greeted her, leaning against the doorway with a massive grin, “you  _ reek _ of sex.”

“I ought to,” Darcy replied, grinning back, utterly unashamed. “I've done nothing but for the last seven days.”

“Aren't you chafed?”

Darcy laughed, turning back to the refrigerator. “Don't think you're going to con me into sharing details. My Alpha wouldn't like it.” She reached for the bottle of orange juice, but stopped, a look of wonder crossing her face.

Clint quirked an eyebrow at her. “What?”

“I just...” She paused, swallowing hard, her eyes welling up. “My Alpha,” she said softly. “I have an Alpha now.”

“Aw, Darce,” Clint said, coming over to give her a tight hug. “You sure do. One of the best, too, you lucky bitch.”

She hugged him back, grinning broadly even as she sniffled back happy tears. “He really is,” she murmured into his shoulder. “He's so great.”

“Hey, hey, break it up, break it up.” Tony swept into the room, heading for the refrigerator and shouldering Darcy out of the way as he dug in, pulling a box of Chinese out of the back. He propped himself up against the countertop as Darcy went back for the orange juice, wiping at her eyes but still grinning. “You smell like a bonded Omega,” he said, pointing his chopsticks at Darcy.

“Imagine that,” Darcy replied, snickering. “Any more genius revelations for us this afternoon?”

He eyeballed her, sniffing gently in her direction. “Why are you even out here? You're not finished denning.”

“We ran out of food,” Darcy explained, unearthing a leftover casserole. “I'm taking this, by the way.”

The tips of his chopsticks now pointed in the direction of her apartment door. “I will have groceries delivered,” he said. “Go away before people start going into rut.”

“I'm going,” Darcy replied. She paused, backtracked, and snagged the half of a chocolate cake that was sitting nearby on the counter, still in its bakery box. “I'm taking this, too.”

It was another three days before any of them emerged again. That time, though, it was all of them, and the denning period was definitely over. Darcy darted out of the apartment at eight forty-five on a Tuesday morning, barreling down the fire stairs to the lab level because she was fifteen minutes late for her usual start time and ten days behind on work. Bucky strolled out an hour or so after that, running a hand through his perennial bedhead as he left for the farmers' market and making noises about veggie lasagna. Near noon, Steve finally made his appearance, but no matter how hard Tony tried to tease him, he just smiled and refused to rise to the bait. Tony finally gave up in disgust.

After dinner that night, standing by the windows in their new apartment with her Alpha and her Beta sitting on the sofa behind her, Darcy finally worked up the nerve to pick up the phone and call her parents. She sat down on the sofa between Steve and Bucky, took a deep breath, and dialed the familiar number. At Steve's murmured request, she put the call on speaker phone. It rang twice, and a woman's Southern-accented voice answered. “Hello?”

“Mama,” Darcy said, her voice small and breathless. “It's me.”

“Darcy,” her mother breathed. “Darcy, baby, where have you been? I've been so worried!”

“I'm sorry, Mama,” Darcy said, leaning into Bucky's warm touch on her back. “I had to get away. I couldn't stand it. I took an internship in New Mexico, and then things just got really weird. You know the Avengers? You've seen them on TV, right? I - when I was on the internship, I met Thor, and my boss ended up bonding with him, and I just... I got caught up in everything. I'm sorry.”

“It doesn't matter now,” her mother replied immediately. “You're safe, right? You're in a safe place?”

“Yeah, Mama,” Darcy replied, swallowing hard. “I'm in New York City, with Thor and Jane and all the Avengers.”

“I'll tell your Daddy,” her mother said. “He'll come get you, with the boys, and bring you home.”

“No.”

There was a long silence after that word fell from Darcy's lips before her mother spoke again, and her voice had gone soft and dangerous. “What do you mean, 'no'?”

Darcy swallowed hard. Steve rested his hand on her thigh, giving her an encouraging squeeze. Darcy said, “Mama, I'm bonded now.”

There was another very long silence, and then a sound of shuffling. The next voice to speak was a man's, and from the change in sound, they were on speaker on that end, too. The man said, “Darcy Anne, is that you?”

Darcy paled, swallowing hard. “Yeah, Daddy.”

“Where are you? I'm comin' to get you with the boys.”

“No, Daddy,” Darcy said. “I just told Mama, I'm in New York City now, and I work with the Avengers, and - ”

“And you've got yourself above yourself, have you?” her father snapped, and Steve felt a low growl begin in the back of his throat when Darcy stiffened at the sound of her father's Alpha-voice coming through the phone. “I said tell me where you are,  _ now _ , girl. I'm a-comin' to get you with the boys.”

Steve leaned over and spoke into Darcy's ear, just the softest breath of his own Alpha-voice to countermand her father's. “Tell him no.”

She whined softly, going slightly limp against him. “No, Daddy,” she said, and Steve pressed a gentle kiss behind her ear as a reward. She took a shaky breath and continued, “Daddy, I - You can't come get me. I'm bonded now. I've got an Alpha.”

“ _ And _ a Beta,” Bucky murmured into her other ear.

Darcy smiled. “And a Beta,” she added.

There was a very long silence from the other end of the line. After a long moment, her father said, “Bullshit. You're a liar.”

“I am not,” Darcy snapped back, incensed. “I've  _ never _ been a liar. I  _ never _ lied to you. Not about this, and not about Jacob either.”

“What's his name, then?” the man demanded. “Put him on the line.”

“His name is Steve Rogers,” Steve replied, his Alpha voice deep and rumbling in his chest. “Also known as Captain America. Maybe you've heard of me.”

There was a very long silence on the other end of the line. Bucky cocked an eyebrow at his Alpha, and when he spoke, he deliberately used his thickest Brooklyn accent, the one that annoyed even Steve. “'Ey, Stevie, I think you broke 'im.”

Darcy swallowed, giving Steve a questioning glance, but he shook his head, laying a gentle finger across her lips. He said, “Mr. Lewis, if you're still there...?”

“Yeah, I'm here,” Darcy's father replied. He gave a low  _ harrumph _ . “What do you want, then?”

“Me? I don't want a damn thing,” Steve replied. “ _ Darcy _ was hoping to re-establish contact with you. You're her family. I won't keep her from that, if it's what she wants.”

Her father laughed. It was not a pleasant sound. “She completely drops outta sight for three years, no word, nothin', and then she calls up outta the blue talkin' about she's  _ bonded _ to some spandex-wearin' faggot without even so much as a by-your-leave, and she wants to  _ re-establish contact?! _ Let me tell you somethin', Mister Captain Fuckin' America, I had a match made for that girl, woulda been a good setup all the way around, but she's too gods-damn stupid to understand normal thinkin', so off she run. You got her now, and I sure as shit hope she's proud of herself, but I promise you right now, she ain't got no family here. Not no more, not now, not ever. So you can take that, and her,  _ and _ your shiny shield, and shove all three of 'em where the sun don't shine.” 

The line went dead, and a moment later, the screen of Darcy's phone went dark. She began to tremble, and Steve reached out, pulling her into his lap to hold her tight. Bucky shifted as well, tucking himself up against her back and stroking her skin. She didn't cry; instead, she buried her forehead against Steve's neck, curling herself up into a tiny ball. A low keening sound escaped from her, breaking only when she paused for breath: the sound of her finally mourning for what she had lost, and what she had never had in the first place.

They were silent for a long time, until Darcy's soft sounds of distress finally calmed. Once they did, Bucky spoke, his voice soft against the back of her shoulder. “Darce,” he murmured, his hands never ceasing their warm, comforting motions, “did he voice you like that a lot?”

Darcy raised her head. Her eyes were still dry, but she looked utterly wrecked. “What do you mean?” she asked.

Bucky clarified, “When he said to you to tell him where you were... and he used that voice on you, where you felt like you couldn't say no?” She nodded, and he continued. “You know that's Alpha-voice, right?” She nodded again, obviously waiting for him to get to the point. He swallowed hard. “Did he do that to you a lot? Use that voice to make you do things?”

She shrugged. “Sometimes,” she said. “Why?”

Bucky and Steve exchanged glances. Bucky pressed his nose to the back of her neck, breathing in her scent. She smelled pure to him, like Ivory soap, overlaid with the gentle musk that was Steve. “Darce,” he said, his voice gentle, “you know he's wrong for that, don't you? Alpha-voice... you don't... you don't use that on your kids.”

She blinked, turning to stare at him with utter confusion on her face. “What?”

Steve cleared his throat. “What Bucky's trying to say,” he said, reaching up to stroke her cheek as she turned back to him, “is that for your father to use his Alpha-voice on you is... well, it's extremely inappropriate, at best. At worst, it's...” He trailed off for a moment, searching for words.

Finally, Bucky bit the bullet. “Darce, Alpha-voice... it's only for  _ mates _ . You see what I'm sayin'? Steve wouldn't use his Alpha-voice on Jane, right? Or on Bruce? Because it's... it's  _ private _ .”

“You mean it's sexual,” Darcy said, her voice shaking. 

“Basically, yes,” Steve said, his hand cupping her cheek. His thumb ran across her cheekbone, soothing the skin there. “So for your father to use that on you, to try and force you like that...”

“It's just plain wrong,” Bucky finished for him. “And creepy as fuck, while we're at it.”

Darcy leaned forward again, pressing her forehead to Steve's shoulder. She was silent for a long moment before muttering, “I think I always knew that.” She looked up at him. “In the back of my mind, I think I always knew... there was something strange about how he was, when he'd do that.” She swallowed hard, lifting her chin. “So, fuck him. I don't need him. I got by just fine without him for three years, and now I have you - both of you - and we have the best pack in the world, and I don't need him.”

“Damn straight,” Bucky said softly, kissing the nape of her neck.

She snuggled herself down into Steve's lap, clutching at his rib cage. He held her tightly, letting Bucky drape himself around her as well, so that she was entirely surrounded by them both, held gently in their joint embrace. And there, when she finally felt safe held in their arms, she closed her eyes and she cried.


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I forgot to warn for this chapter. One instance of aggressive sexual harassment (edging onto threatened sexual assault) that is immediately handled with extreme prejudice.

Two weeks after the disastrous phone call to her birth family, Jane found Darcy humming softly under her breath as she rearranged the cabinets in the lab. Jane stood in the doorway for a long moment, wondering how exactly she should go about broaching the subject. Finally, she gave a soft cough, just enough to catch Darcy's attention.

The assistant looked over her shoulder from her spot on the floor in front of the first aid cabinet and said, “Hey, Jane! I was just doing some organizing.”

“I see that,” Jane said, cocking an eyebrow. “Everything looks really... sparkly in here.”

“Yeah, I've been cleaning,” Darcy said. “I came in this morning and thought it looked kind of grungy, so...” she trailed off, shrugging, and turned back to the cabinet.

“Uh- _ huh _ ,” Jane said. She rolled her eyes. “Darcy? When's your heat due?”

Darcy paused in her movements, her head cocked, obviously counting in her head. She looked up suddenly, her gaze taking in the entire lab, and then looked down at the cabinet, where she was currently in the middle of arranging the Band-Aids by size and color. “Oh,” she said.

“Yeah,” Jane said. “Go home. Nest there.”

“Okay,” Darcy replied agreeably. “Let me just finish this cabinet. Otherwise you won't be able to find the burn cream if you need it.”

Jane sighed heavily, but watched as Darcy finished the cabinet. Then she reached out and closed it, pulling on Darcy's arm. “That's it,” she said. “ _ Go home. _ Call Steve.”

“Yeah,” Darcy said. “I'll do that.”

Jane's eyes narrowed. That last sentence had been spoken in a breathy tone that was entirely unlike Darcy. “Shit,” she muttered. “You have  _ got _ to start paying attention to the signs!” Because there was no doubt about it; Darcy's eyes were glazing over and she was sliding from pre-heat to full-blown heat even as they stood there. 

A noise at the door caught Jane's attention; it was Amy Jernigan, an Alpha who worked as a junior scientist in the bio-chem lab across the hall, and she was leaning against the doorframe. “Hey, there,” Jernigan said, her lips curling into a smile. “You, uh... need some help for your friend there?”

“No,” Jane said, her voice very firm, even as she guided Darcy to a seat at her workstation. “Thank you.”

“Aw, don't be like that,” Jernigan drawled, sticking her hands in her pockets and taking a few casual steps into the lab. “I just wanna be friendly.”

“I'm sure that's true,” Jane replied in a voice that indicated that she was certain of no such thing. “But my friend has a bonded Alpha and doesn't need your help.”

Jernigan smirked. “She's got a bonded Alpha that let her out of the den like this?” she said, drawing even closer, deliberately releasing Alpha-smell into the air. To Jane, it smelled almost like burning hair. “Maybe she needs a better Alpha.”

Darcy whined softly. Her hand slid across the desk, out of view of the slowly approaching Alpha. She reached under a magazine, her hand gripping something, and she pulled the object out just far enough that Jane could see it. The tiny scientist let out a slow breath of relief. She turned her body just enough that the Alpha couldn't see what she was doing, and Darcy slid her Taser across the desktop and into Jane's hand.

Jane whimpered loudly, pretending fear, and waited until the Alpha got close enough that she could be sure of an accurate shot. Then her arm whipped up, there was a soft electrical whine, and the Alpha shouted when the prongs hit her. “I said she's bonded,  _ asshole _ ,” Jane said, right before the Taser delivered its electrical payload.

Jernigan hit the floor with a bang, and Jane moved immediately, grabbing the Alpha by the collar of her lab coat and dragging her out of the lab and into the hallway. Then she darted back into the lab. “JARVIS!” she shouted. “Initiate emergency protocol one, this lab only!”

The sound of the lab locking down was immediate, as was the alarm that went off. Jane leaned against the door, taking deep breaths, her heart racing in her throat. “Oh, my God,” she whispered. “I never want to do that again.”

She glared across the room at Darcy, who was shivering, her arms clamped around herself. “What the hell were you thinking, coming out in pre-heat?” she shouted. “What is  _ wrong _ with you?”

“I didn't know!” Darcy cried, and Jane was startled to discover when she walked back toward her friend that there were actual tears rolling down Darcy's face. “I didn't know, I swear!”

“Darcy,” Jane said, her voice a little calmer now, “how could you not know?”

Darcy swallowed hard. “I've been taking suppressants ever since Jacob,” she admitted. “I w-was afraid of this ha-happening, and I thought the best way to avoid it was to n-not go into heat.”

“Oh, honey.” All the anger ran out of Jane in a rush of sympathy, and she wrapped her arms around her friend. “And you went off them after you bonded?”

Darcy nodded into Jane's shoulder. “We talked about it, and we decided the best thing to do was get me back on a regular cycle, if we're ever gonna have p-pups.”

“Darcy,” Jane said, “had you ever gone into heat before Jacob?”

Darcy blushed, shaking her head. “I was kind of a late bloomer.”

“Oh, God,” Jane groaned, leaning down to touch her forehead to Darcy's crown. “That explains so much.” She huffed out a soft laugh, then said, “When this is over, you and I need to sit down and have a very serious talk, Omega to Omega. Okay?”

“Okay.” Darcy nodded, wiping at her eyes, and Jane went back to the glass wall, just in time to see security come pounding up, accompanied by Bucky and Tony. Through the glass she explained the situation, and two of the five security guards took Jernigan into custody immediately - though not before Bucky got in a hard kick to the Alpha's midsection. Tony called on JARVIS to cancel the emergency protocol. The siren stopped, and the lab unlocked. 

Bucky darted in, rushing to Darcy's side and kneeling down in front of her, his hands going to her cheeks, her neck, her shoulders, and down, as he checked her for injury. “You're okay, sweetheart?” he asked her.

She nodded. “I'm okay,” she whispered. “But Bucky... I need to get home. It hurts.”

Bucky rubbed at her forehead. She was, in fact, sweating hard, and felt like she had a temperature. She was definitely in heat. He took her hands. “Come on,” he said, drawing her toward the door. “Tony's going to walk with us, to make sure nobody else messes with you. Okay?” Darcy nodded, whining, and followed him, never letting go of his hand.

In the hall, Tony stepped away from her, his nose wrinkling at the onslaught of heat pheromones. “Security go first; I'll bring up the rear,” he said, fidgeting with one of his repulsor gloves. “Let's get her home.”

They hurried down the hall to the elevator, the three remaining security team members clearing the hall in front of them. There were no further incidents and Bucky got her into the elevator. “JARVIS,” he said as the doors slid closed, “take us to our floor, please? And call Steve; tell him Darcy needs him.”

“Right away, sir,” JARVIS replied, smooth as ever. 

The elevator rose, and when its doors opened, the common area was empty. “Come on, baby,” Bucky said, pulling Darcy behind him at a quick pace. “Let's get you home.”

Once they were safely in their den, on the inside of the door that locked and the walls that were lined with the latest in scent-blocking technology, Bucky was able to relax, dropping into a chair and letting Darcy climb into his lap, burning up with her heat and desperate for someone to fuck her. He helped her peel her sweater and bra off, cupping her breasts in his hands and teasing at the nipples before taking them, one after the other, into his mouth and suckling them until she arched in his hands and cried out. Then, chuckling, he flicked the button on her jeans and began working them and her underwear down her legs.

She slid out of the chair, kicking her shoes off, and pushed the denim and cotton into the floor, then climbed back into Bucky's lap, bending down to capture his mouth with hers. His hands fluttered over her body, finding sensitive spots to make her shiver and whine and wail, before finally delving between her legs, finding the source of her desperation already slick and grasping. He pushed two fingers inside her and she cried out, grinding down onto his hand. “Bucky, Bucky, please,” she babbled. “Please, I need it,  _ please! _ ”

He grinned. “I know, baby. I got you.” With his free hand, he pulled at the button and zip of his jeans. “Lift up,” he said, and he raised his hips when she did, pushing down the fabric far enough to release his cock. Smooth and knotless, it would never satisfy her heat, but Bucky knew how to make her scream, and he could definitely keep her occupied until Steve got there. He took her hip in his left hand and his cock in his right, and he guided her down onto him.

She took him in easily, groaning softly as he filled her and stretched her. Slowly, she began rocking in his lap, grinding down on him, her body instinctively seeking the knot that he didn't possess. He sat back, holding her wrists behind her back with his metal hand and watching her dance for him with that cocky smirk on his face - the one that drove her wild. He let her do all the work, wearing herself out on him, and he waited until she begged before he dropped his other hand down to her clit. With a low growl, he pressed his thumb against it and rubbed just the way she liked.

She arched, crying out and coming hard around him, her body trying desperately to lock on. Because he lacked a knot, she couldn't tie, and she sobbed out her frustration even as he gripped her hips, turning her in his lap until she was facing the other direction. He pulled her back against him, his hands coming up to cup her breasts, and he murmured into her ear, “Keep dancing, sweetheart; you look so sexy when you dance for me.”

She moaned, arching her body, and she rolled her hips, finding a rhythm that pleased her. He watched, running his hands up and down her body as she undulated on top of him, pressing soft kisses to her neck and shoulders and occasionally giving her little licks, tasting the flavor of her heat on his tongue, rolling it around his mouth. He kept it together as long as he could, using every trick he could think of - baseball stats, working math problems in foreign languages, even thinking about how mad the Dodgers' move to L.A. still made him - but he couldn't hold off his own orgasm forever. When he felt it building up at the base of his spine, he slid one hand down to her clit, rubbing and stroking it until she shattered on top of him, her body trying once again to lock down. This time, he let himself go, thrusting up into her hard enough to make her grunt with each shove and then grinding in deep while he spurted inside of her.

She collapsed in his lap, whining softly, and he chuckled, stroking her too-warm skin. “Steve shouldn't be much longer,” he promised.

It was, in fact, just a matter of a few more minutes before Steve entered the apartment. On his entry, it became immediately obvious that someone had told him what had happened in the lab. He came straight over to Darcy, cupping her face with his hands and looking down into her glazed eyes. “Are you all right?” he asked her. “She didn't hurt you?”

She shook her head. “I'm fine, I promise,” she assured him. “Jane shot her with my Taser.”

Steve laughed, leaning down to kiss her deeply. “I'll have to remember to thank her,” he murmured when he released her, his lips pressing butterfly kisses all over her skin. “For protecting you when I couldn't.”

She whined, a fresh rush of slick coating her, filling the room with the smell of her need. “Alpha,” she whispered. “Please.”

“What do you need?” he asked her, despite knowing perfectly well. “Tell me what you need from me, and I'll give it to you.”

“Need your knot,” she whined, her hips starting to roll. “Please, Alpha, I need your knot. Need you to fuck me, tie me, fill me up. Please, Alpha.”

“Shh.” He stroked her face with his thumbs. “I told you, I'll give you what you need. You're my Omega and I'm your Alpha, and I'm gonna take care of you. Okay?”

She nodded, whining some more, and he smiled, lifting her off Bucky's lap and drawing her to the floor. “Present for me,” Steve murmured.

Darcy whimpered, rolling onto her stomach, and drew her knees up under her body, spreading her legs wide and presenting him with unfettered access to her. He reached out and palmed one globe of her ass. “You are so perfect,” he murmured. “My perfect Omega.” He began shedding his clothing, tossing it onto the nearby couch. He slipped two fingers inside her, grinning broadly. “Bucky warmed you up, hmm?”

“Yeah,” she whined. “Yeah, he took care of me.”

“He's a good Beta,” Steve murmured, kneeling behind her and leaning down to kiss the small of her back. Then he winked at Bucky. “I'll have to reward him later.”

Bucky shivered hard at the implications, palming his dick and watching with avid eyes as Steve adjusted Darcy to just the right position before sinking into her, pressing in all the way. He watched with the faintest twinge of jealousy as Darcy's body easily opened up and accepted Steve's knot - the only time he'd ever wished he was an Omega! - and swiped his thumb across the tip, gathering up the precome that leaked out as Darcy's whines increased in pitch.

Steve ground in deep, making Darcy moan, and Bucky let out a soft groan at the same time. “Fuck, Steve,” he murmured.

Steve laughed. “Look,” he said to Darcy. “Look at Bucky. Look how hard he is, already, just from watching you be so perfect for me.”

Darcy's head turned, her lust-glazed eyes taking him in, and she made a deep sound of desire that Bucky had never heard from her before. His cock jumped in his hand and he squeezed it hard at the base, not wanting to come yet. Steve grinned. “He looks delicious, doesn't he?” At Darcy's affirmative noise, he ground into her again and then said, “Do you want to suck his cock?”

“Yes,” Darcy gasped. “Yes, Alpha, please, please let me suck his cock.”

“Well, how could I say no to such a pretty request?” Steve asked. He ran his hands up her back, gripping her shoulders and pulling her up onto her hands. Then he gestured to Bucky, who wasted no time shucking his own clothing and dropping to his knees in front of Darcy. She licked a slow line up the underside of his cock from base to tip, and then with no further preamble, she opened her mouth and took him all the way inside.

He swore when he felt the tip of his cock hit the back of her throat, but when he slid further in and she swallowed around him, his eyes rolled back in his head and he couldn't say anything at all. She backed off him, grinning as best she could around his length, and Steve gave a soft, disbelieving laugh. “Did she just...?”

“Yeah, she did,” Bucky replied, his voice a little hoarse. “Holy hell, kitten, you could take the chrome off a car bumper like that.”

She rolled her eyes at him, winked, and then did it again. Bucky squeezed his eyes shut, buried his hands in her hair, and let her do whatever she wanted, reveling in the feel of her blazing hot mouth and the delicious, filthy wet sounds that Steve was making as he pounded into her. His orgasm hit him with the speed and subtlety of a freight train and he cried out, arching against her as he flooded her mouth and throat, and she swallowed him down as best she could, grinning wide when he caught a bit of overflow on his thumb and pressed it back into her mouth.

Steve groaned at the sight, reaching out to fist his hand in her hair and tug her backward. Bucky, divining his intent, lifted up on her shoulders and pushed her back against him. Her arms rose to wrap around Steve's head as they had wrapped around Bucky's at their bonding, and Steve cupped one of her breasts with one hand while his other slid down her body to stroke at her clit.

Bucky took her other breast in his mouth, adding his fingers to Steve's between her legs, and she came hard, crying out both their names as her body locked down around Steve's knot. He gave a few more thrusts against the resistance deep inside her, swearing a blue streak the whole time, and then he let go, groaning into the crook of her neck as he filled her with himself.

As he had done after their bonding, Bucky waited for their breathing to even out before helping them to lie down on the soft living room rug and giving them couch cushions to pillow their heads on. Darcy shivered and moaned with every touch, still incredibly sensitive, and Steve murmured soft, soothing words into her ear as Bucky pulled the afghan off the back of the couch, draping it over them. He padded into the half-bath for a cursory clean-up, then into the kitchen for water, which he brought to them in spill-proof coffee flasks. Then he gathered up their discarded clothing, carrying it all to the laundry room and dumping it on the floor to be taken care of later.

Once that was done, the only thing left was to wait for Steve and Darcy to untie, so he made his way back into the living room and slipped under the afghan with them, cuddling up face-to-face with Darcy. He stroked her cheek, giving her a gentle smile, and she smiled back, sleepy and sated. Her eyes fluttered closed, her breathing slowly evening out, and Bucky's eyes flicked up to Steve's.

Steve smiled. “She's asleep?” he asked, his voice soft.

Bucky nodded. “Probably won't last long,” he said. “May as well catch it while she can.”

“Mmm.” Steve knew how this worked: her heat would come in waves over the next couple of days, and it would be his job to tie her when she needed it, and Bucky's to care for them both while they were virtually incapacitated. “I asked Tony about those suppressants she was on,” Steve murmured. “He said they wouldn't affect her fertility.”

Bucky met Steve's eyes. “You're sure you want this?” he asked. “You're not just going along with it because we do?”

“I'm sure,” he said softly. “I would love nothing more than to see her - to see all of us - just surrounded by kids.” He reached up, touching Bucky's face gently. “ _ Both  _ of our kids.”

Bucky swallowed hard against the surprise he felt. “You... want me to breed her, too?”

“If it's a thing that you want, that would make both of you happy, then yes,” Steve said, his thumb tracing Bucky's eyebrow, his fingers trailing down the side of the Beta's face. “I want you both to be happy. So yes, if you want to, and if she wants to, then I want that, too.”

Bucky raised up just enough to lean across Darcy's sleeping form and kiss Steve as hard as he could. “You know you're sickeningly perfect, right?” he said, grinning stupidly.

“Yeah, I know,” Steve replied, smirking back. “It's kind of a curse.”

“Punk.”

“Jerk.”

“Both of you, shut up so I can sleep, please,” Darcy interjected.

“Yes, Omega,” the two men replied in unison. And then they giggled. And then they all cuddled together under the afghan and slept.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And we have arrived at the end of this journey! I want to thank everyone who left a comment and/or a kudos on this story. I honestly did not expect this kind of a reaction, and I am so very flattered and gratified that you all enjoyed it so much.
> 
> I also want to thank Citymusings and Secondalto for beta reading and helping me SO MUCH with the world building, and Merideath and Aenaria for cheerleading and emotional support. <3


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